US stocks zig-zagged around the break-even line in volatile early trade Thursday after a sharp fall the previous day, with Walmart's disappointing revenues in its third quarter report pushing its shares lower.
After an hour of trade, shares were mixed following two sharp direction reverses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 8.76 points (0.07 percent) to 12,577.79.
The broad-market S&P 500 added 2.02 (0.15 percent) to 1,357.51, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 2.05 (0.07 percent) at 2,844.76.
Walmart's shares fell 4.0 percent to $68.39 on quarterly earnings that showed a nine percent rise in net income to $3.63 billion, but revenue at stores climbed only 1.5 percent, below expectations.
The company also admitted in a document filed to the SEC that in addition to the US investigation into allegations the company bribed Mexican officials, that probes were underway on possible corruption act violations in Brazil, China and India.
Also on the Dow, Bank of America and Caterpillar were both up 1.5 percent, while Procter and Gamble fell 0.9 percent.
On the Nasdaq, Apple shares fell 1.1 percent.
Facebook edged 1.4 percent lower after surging nearly 13 percent Wednesday amid a rush of short-covering linked to previous expectations the shares would sink when restrictions on insider share selling were lifted this week.
United Airlines shares were off 1.2 percent amid reports of widespread flight cancellations due to a computer glitch.
Bond prices were slightly lower.
The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to 1.60 percent from 1.59 percent, and the 30-year rose to 2.74 percent from 2.73 percent.
Bond prices and yields move inversely.
