U.S. Stocks Little Changed on Earnings Before Job Data

Bloomberg (21/10) -- U.S. stocks were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied to a record, as investors watched corporate earnings to assess the strength of the economy before tomorrow’s jobless data. McDonald’s Corp. slipped 2 percent after sales trailed estimates as gains slowed in the U.S. Halliburton Co. dropped 3 percent as revenue fell short of forecasts. AT&T Inc. added 1.7 percent after agreeing to sell or lease 9,700 wireless towers to Crown Castle International Corp. Apple Inc. rose 1.9 percent as Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will likely introduce a high-definition iPad mini and thinner iPad tomorrow.The S&P 500 gained less than 0.1 percent to 1,744.70 at 9:51 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.43 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,381.22. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 6.3 percent above the 30-day average during this time of day. “The fact that we reached new highs is bullish,” Tom Wirth, a senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust Co., in Elmira, New York, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $1.7 billion. “The trend is up and you don’t want to fight that. A lot of the attitude is recognition that quantitative easing is not going to stop any time soon and that’s positive for equities.” The S&P 500 had its best weekly gain since July last week as results from Google Inc. topped estimates and speculation grew that the Federal Reserve will delay cutting monetary stimulus. The measure has gained 3.7 percent so far in October (SPX) as Congress agreed on a new federal budget that avoided a default and ended the first partial government shutdown in 17 years.