Stocks looking uncertain
Wall Street was looking for uneven open despite better than expected corporate reports from Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks were headed for a choppy opening Tuesday following better than expected financial results from Wall Street heavyweight Goldman Sachs and consumer giant Johnson & Johnson.
At 8:50 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 were moderately higher after earlier gains faded. Nasdaq-100 futures were lower.
Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance.
Stocks rallied Monday after the influential banking analyst Meredith Whitney said in a televised interview that she was raising her view on Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and that Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) could provide value for investors.
On Tuesday, Goldman reported net income that was much larger than expected. It was the first of several major financial institutions due to report results this week: JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) is on deck for Thursday. Bank of America and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) both report Friday.
"The market is in a pivotal spot and will trade based on earnings and economic news," said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global, in a research note.
After rallying 40% in three months, stocks have cooled off, and investors were looking to second-quarter corporate financial reports as the next gauge of the economy. S&P earnings are expected to have declined 36% in the second quarter versus a year ago, according to the latest Thomson Reuters estimates.
Earnings: Goldman reported net income of $3.44 billion, or $4.93 per share, for the second quarter.
Analysts were expecting net income of $1.73 billion, or $3.54 a share.
Goldman said its results were helped by a strong performance within its equity underwriting and fixed-income businesses.
Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) said its second-quarter profit fell 4.7% but profit and revenue beat analyst forecasts. The company reported earnings per share of $1.15 versus $1.18 per share a year ago. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.11 per share.
Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) reports after the close. The chipmaker is expected to have earned 8 cents per share, versus 28 cents a year earlier.
Economic reports: June retail sales rose a stronger-than-expected 0.6%, the Commerce Department said.
Economists had expected sales to have edged up 0.4%, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Sales excluding autos and auto parts also rose 0.3%, softer than expected, compared to a 0.5% increase in the measure in May. Economists had forecast a gain of 0.5% in June sales, excluding auto purchases.
The producer price index (PPI), a measure of wholesale inflation, surged 1.8% in June after rising 0.2% in May. Economists had expected the index to have risen 1%.
So-called core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, jumped 0.5% in June after falling 0.1% the month before.
Global markets: Asian stocks finished with strong gains, as Tokyo's Nikkei index rallied 2.3%. European markets advanced in early trading.
Oil and money: The price of oil gained 20 cents to $59.69 a barrel. The dollar roses against the yen but lost ground to the euro and British pound. 
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