US stocks flat as markets eye earnings, election

Wall Street stocks were flat early Tuesday as cautiousness over the US presidential election offset a trove of largely solid corporate earnings.

United Technologies and Procter & Gamble rose following better-than-expected results, compensating for disappointments like athletic shoe and apparel maker Under Armour, which plummeted 12.8 percent.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said investors are "on edge" due to uncertainties, such as the possibility that a cyberattack could disrupt the vote.

"Hesitation over the election is likely one of the reasons why trading volume has continued to be light," O'Hare said.

About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,237.55, up 0.1 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost less than 0.1 percent at 2,151.08, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped less than 0.1 percent to 5,308.52.

Caterpillar rose 1.1 percent as it offered measured optimism over its 2017 outlook, noting that commodity prices have improved from their 2016 lows. Still, third-quarter net profits sank nearly 50 percent year-on-year to $283 million.

General Motors dropped 2.5 percent after reporting that net profit in the third quarter roughly doubled to a better-than-expected $2.8 billion due largely to lower costs on recalls compared with the year-ago. The automaker warned that its goal of breaking even in Europe could be stymied by fallout from Britain's vote to pull out of the European Union.

Among Dow components reporting earnings, Merck advanced 1.7 percent, 3M shed 3.5 percent, Visa dipped 0.6 percent and DuPont lost 0.4 percent.

Among other companies that moved considerably after earnings releases, Sherwin-Williams slumped 9.7 percent, Whirlpool tumbled 10.5 percent, Lockheed Martin won 4.9 percent and Freeport-McMoRan rose 7.0 percent.