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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Strong earnings from Texas Instruments and a rally in tech helped boost the Nasdaq composite Tuesday, while DuPont's earnings miss kept the Dow industrials in the red.
Amazon.com notwithstanding, a number of other after-hours earnings were less than upbeat, suggesting a mixed to lower open for stocks Wednesday.
The Nasdaq composite (up 9.25 to 2,175.99, Charts) added 0.4 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 2.13 to 1,231.16, Charts) index added around 0.2 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average (down 16.71 to 10,579.77, Charts) lost nearly 0.2 percent.
A weak read on consumer confidence got the market off to a shaky morning. But the afternoon was more positive, with investors focusing on upbeat earnings from companies such as Texas Instruments, Avaya, Netflix and Tellabs.
After the close, online retailer Amazon.com (down $0.21 to $37.74, Research) reported earnings and revenue that topped estimates, sending shares higher in after-hours trade.
Sun Microsystems (Research) reported earnings after the close that topped estimates on revenue that met estimates. Shares jumped in extended-hours trade.
However, Siebel Systems (Research) warned that quarterly earnings and revenue would miss forecasts, sending shares of the software maker lower after hours.
And InfoSpace (Research), warned that fiscal third-quarter and full-year 2005 earnings and revenue will miss forecasts, due to weaker sales. The company, which operates some Web search engines and provides ring tones and other features for mobile phones, saw its stock lost more than a third of its value in after-hours trade.
"The trend with the earnings has been that if you beat the estimates strongly, you get rewarded, but if you miss, you get hammered," said Barry Hyman, equity strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum, noting the investor reactions to Amazon.com and InfoSpace.
"The quarter has been going well, but in the short term the market may be a little overbought and in need of a correction," he added.
Wednesday brings reports on June new home sales and durable goods orders in the morning, as well as the Fed's "beige book" read on the economy in the afternoon.
All about the earnings
With expectations high for second-quarter earnings to top forecasts, notable hits and misses have tended to spark big reactions in the underlying stocks.
That was certainly true of Texas Instruments (up $1.70 to $32.30, Research), which jumped 5.6 percent after the chipmaker reported quarterly earnings and revenue late Monday that rose from a year ago and topped forecasts.
The chipmaker also issued a current-quarter revenue forecast that is higher than expectations and said it is upping its dividend.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Dow component DuPont (down $2.89 to $41.15, Research) slumped 6.6 percent after the chemical maker reported earnings that rose from a year ago but missed expectations, due to higher energy costs.
"On balance, the earnings period so far has been very reasonable, even better than expected," said James Awad, president of money manager Awad Asset Management.
He said that the strength of the earnings should enable the stock market to drift higher this week, hanging on to gains after a four-week rally that pushed the S&P 500 to its highest point in four years.
GM jumps on deal
Strength in other Dow issues helped counter the weakness in DuPont.
General Motors Acceptance Corp., GM's financial unit, said it would sell up to $55 billion of auto loans and leases to financial firm Bank of America (Research) over the next five years.
GM (up $1.09 to $36.96, Research) rose three percent on the news.
Verizon Communications (up $0.11 to $34.13, Research) gained 1 percent after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings, but boosting its 2005 capital spending forecast.
Among other stocks moving on earnings news, Avaya (up $1.51 to $10.74, Research) jumped more than 16 percent after the supplier of gear that sends telephone calls over the Internet reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings.
Another network gear maker, Tellabs (up $0.72 to $9.61, Research), rose more than 8 percent on improved results that beat forecasts.
Online DVD rental firm Netflix (up $2.05 to $19.01, Research) also surprised analysts with its higher quarterly earnings, released late Monday. That sent shares 12 percent higher.
On the downside, printer maker Lexmark International (down $7.15 to $61.40, Research) fell 10.4 percent after reporting quarterly revenue that missed forecasts and warning that current quarter earnings and revenue would miss expectations. That overshadowed the company's in-line earnings per share results.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers about nine to seven on volume of 1.47 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners by nearly four to three on volume of 1.69 billion shares.
The session's one economic report was the July consumer confidence index. The index fell to 103.2 in the month from 105.8 in June, short of forecasts.
Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity, and changes in confidence are seen as a gauge of economic strength or weakness.
U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose 20 cents to settle at $59.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Treasury prices limped higher, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.23 percent from the 4.25 percent level late Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.
COMEX gold fell $2.40 to $423.50 an ounce.
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