U.S. stock markets finished Tuesday mostly flat, after a day filled with uncertainty due to oil prices and 4th quarter earnings.
It was a bad morning on Wall Street, as the Dow fell over 100 points during the early part of the session. Oil prices dropped almost 5% on Tuesday to just over $46 per barrel.
But it was earnings reports from big-name companies such as Morgan Stanley and Johnson & Johnson that took center stage after the opening bell today. Johnson & Johnson’s disappointing results played a significant role in the morning’s poor performance.
Later in the day, prices fought back to even on the strength of the technology sector. They finished the day up slightly from Friday’s close. (Monday was a market holiday, in observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.)
Other major issues in focus today are President Obama’s State of the Union address, scheduled for 9 p.m. tonight, as well as the European Central Bank’s (ECB) two-day meeting this week. Many believe the ECB will announce its own quantitative easing program on Thursday.
Here are Tuesday’s final numbers on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,515.23 (+3.66)
NASDAQ: 4,654.85 (+20.46)
S&P 500: 2,022.55 (+3.13)
