US stocks rise despite Goldman, IBM Q1 disappointments

US stocks managed gains in opening trade Tuesday despite significant first-quarter earnings disappointments from Dow blue chips Goldman Sachs and IBM.

A smaller-than-expected subscriber growth forecast from Netflix, meanwhile, led a fall in tech stocks on the Nasdaq.

About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,079.45, up 75.29 points (0.24 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 7.32 (0.35 percent) to 2,101.66, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 10.19 (0.21 percent) at 4,949.83.

Goldman Sachs was the latest big bank to report a significant downturn in the first quarter, with profits off by 56 percent on a 40 percent drop in revenues to $6.3 billion.

Goldman shares fell sharply at the opening bell but recovered to add 1.7 percent.

"The operating environment this quarter presented a broad range of challenges, resulting in headwinds across virtually every one of our businesses," said chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

IBM shares tumbled 4.7 percent after revenues fell for the 16th straight quarter, down 4.6 percent from a year ago to $18.6 billion. But the technology giant, struggling to carve out space in the cloud computing industry, easily beat net earnings forecasts.

Supporting the Dow were strong quarterly earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group.

Streaming entertainment leader Netflix sank 10.2 percent after warning investors that subscription gains would be slower than expected. The company estimated it would add 500,000 US subscribers in the current quarter, about 15 percent below analyst predictions. It also expects to add two million international subscribers.

Yahoo lost 1.0 percent while Verizon gained 0.2 percent after reports said Verizon, the US telecoms giant, was the leading suitor to take over the struggling Internet pioneer.