Markets pause after surge as earnings season heats up

One day after the Dow's historic surge above 20,000 points, global markets mostly treaded water Thursday as corporate earnings took center stage.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average's long-awaited breaching of the milestone had ignited big gains in international stocks on Wednesday. Proceedings were quieter on Thursday.

"The market is probably taking a breather after yesterday," said Bill Lynch, director of investment at Hinsdale Associates.

The Dow modestly added to its record, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq edged down. European markets avoided major moves, while Japan's Nikkei enjoyed another up day, rising 1.8 percent.

In the US, a wide array of large companies, including in media, chemicals, autos and pharmaceuticals, released results in a peak week for fourth-quarter earnings reports.

About 30 percent of the S&P 500 has reported thus far, with profits now on track to rise 4.9 percent compared with the 3.9 percent seen at the outset of the quarter, according to research firm CFRA.

Earnings growth has been stronger than expected for financial companies and declines have been smaller than expected for industrials, said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research

"Earnings are pretty good" but "not exceptional," Bell said, adding that companies are not estimating the benefits of new policies favored by President Donald Trump.

"There are potential tax reforms and repatriation opportunities, but nobody knows what they're going to look like," she said.

"What we've seen so far is managements remain cautious about providing guidance for the full year given the uncertainties."

Among big-name stocks, Ford dropped 3.3 percent after reporting an $800 million loss in the fourth quarter, which included the impact of $200 million in one-time costs associated with spiking a plan to open a new plant in Mexico following pressure from Trump.

Mattel plunged 17.7 percent after reporting fourth-quarter earnings and sales well below analyst expectations. Chief executive Christopher Sinclair pointed to a "significant toy category slowdown in the holiday period" that resulted in elevated promotional activity.

Among other large companies reporting earnings, AT&T gained 1.0 percent, Caterpillar lost 1.0 percent, Dow Chemical rose 2.0 percent, Southwest Airlines jumped 9.0 percent and Whirlpool slumped 9.0 percent.

Chevron and Honeywell International were among the companies scheduled to report Friday.

- Key figures around 2200 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 20,100.91 (close)

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 2,296.68 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 5,655.18 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 7,161.49 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.4 percent at 11,848.63 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,867.24 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.3 percent at 3,314.79 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent at 19,402.39 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,159.17 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.4 percent at 23,374.17 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0673 from $1.0682

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2593 from $1.2585

Dollar/yen: UP at 114.56 yen from 114.38 yen

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP $1.03 at $53.78 per barrel

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP $1.16 at $56.24 per barrel