Wall Street struggles at the openStocks fight to rise as investors mull weak corporate earnings and lower inflation reads.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Major gauges struggled in the first moments of trade Tuesday after reassuring news on consumer prices battled weak earnings reports from two Dow components. The Dow edged higher, Nasdaq was flat while the S&P 500 tip toed up. Consumer prices rose a bit less than forecast in April, according to the government's key inflation report Tuesday, but the closely watched core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, after edging up only 0.1 percent in March, in line with economists' forecasts. Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) Stores on Tuesday posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that the company said should have been better as it warned that second-quarter results would come in at or below forecasts. Home Depot (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement chain, posted lower quarterly profit on Tuesday as the softer U.S. housing market hurt sales. Troubled automaker Chrysler, which agreed to be bought Monday, lost more than $2 billion the first quarter, but parent company DaimlerChrysler (Charts) still reported earnings that exceeded market expectations. |
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