Stocks in a struggle
Wall Street churns on weak Walt Disney and Kraft earnings, and job loss data.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks churned Wednesday morning after some dismal earnings reports and key jobs reports that were bad, but not as bad as had been feared.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) straddled the breakeven line about 20 minutes in the session, dragged by Walt Disney and Kraft Foods results.
The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index added 0.7%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) added 0.9%.
Wall Street mounted a rally Tuesday. Dave Rovelli, managing director at Canaccord Adams, said that momentum from the last session carried through to overseas trading, and could continue on Wall Street Wednesday.
"As long as we don't get any real bad news this week we should get continuation [of the rally,]" said Rovelli.
Job market: Planned job cuts totaled 241,749 in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a seven-year high for monthly layoffs. Many of the cuts came from record downsizing in the retail sector, the report said.
Payroll services firm ADP's survey on private-sector payrolls showed that the U.S. economy shed 522,000 jobs in January.
The global recession has forced companies around the world to reduce staff. Panasonic (PC) became the latest firm to announce cuts, saying it plans to slash 15,000 jobs by 2010.
Corporate results: The New York-based media corporation Time Warner Inc (TWX, Fortune 500)., which owns CNNMoney.com, missed expectations for fourth-quarter results and forecast a flat profit for the full year.
Time Warner reported a net loss of $16 billion, or $4.47 a share, for the fourth quarter.
Without charges, Time Warner reported a profit of 23 cents per share, falling short of the analyst consensus forecast of 26 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Shares fell 3%.
Kraft Foods (KFT, Fortune 500), based in Northfield, Ill., posted earnings that fell just short of expectations. The company said that diluted earnings, excluding charges, fell 2% in the fourth quarter to 43 cents per share, compared to the year-earlier quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast 44 cents per share.
Shares of Kraft, a Dow stock, fell 9%.
After U.S. markets closed Tuesday, Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) posted quarterly sales and earnings that missed expectations. Shares fell 6% Wednesday morning.
Executive pay: President Obama is due to unveil new rules that will impose salary caps on executives of firms that receive the most aid from government bailout funds. The new rules will limit executive pay to $500,000.
Companies: Other stocks to watch include discount retailer Costco (COST, Fortune 500), which warned early Wednesday that its earnings for the current quarter would fall well below expectations. Shares fell 9%.
International markets: Asian indexes, including the Nikkei and the Hang Seng, closed higher. European indexes were also higher in afternoon trading.
Oil and money: Oil prices rose 65 cents $41.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The dollar fell versus the yen, but rose against the euro and the British pound. 
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