A stock rally falters as U.S. earnings disappoint

4/23/2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Wall-Street-651

    Specialist Michael Pistillo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, April 23, 2014. The stock market slipped Wednesday after rallying for six straight days as investors worked through another round of quarterly earnings reports from U.S. companies. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    • NEW YORK — The stock market is slightly lower after a six-day advance as several U.S. companies report disappointing earnings.

    Norfolk Southern, Procter & Gamble, and Avery Dennison fell after reporting their latest quarterly results.

    Intuitive Surgical dropped 9 percent after the company said it sold only half has many surgical robots in the last quarter as it did in the same period a year ago.

    Not all the earnings news was bad. Delta Air Lines rose 5 percent after its first-quarter earnings climbed.

    The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,877 in midday trading today.

    The Dow Jones industrial average lost 20 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,494. The Nasdaq composite fell 20 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,141.