Stocks Opened Lower on Mixed Earnings

U.S. stocks began slightly lower on Thursday, as underwhelming results from tech giants Google and IBM were offset by upbeat quarterly numbers from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and General Electric. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately shed 25.60 points, or 0.16%, to 16,399.25. The S&P 500 was off 0.98 points, or 0.05%, to 1,861.33. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.67 points, or 0.04%, to 4,084.55.

The number of Americans filling for unemployment insurance payments last week hovered near the lowest level in almost seven years, showing the job market is making progress. Jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 304,000 in the week ended April 12 from a revised 302,000 the prior period that was the lowest since September 2007, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.

Morgan Stanley (MS) said Thursday its first-quarter earnings were up 63% to $1.46 billion, or 74 cents a share, compared with $981 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same period the year before. Adjusted earnings per share was 68 cents. Total revenues were up 10% to $8.93 billion, compared to $8.15 billion, in the year-ago quarter, and came to $8.8 billion on an adjusted basis.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS ) said Thursday its first-quarter earnings fell 10% to $2.03 billion, or $4.02 a share, compared with $2.26 billion, or $4.29 a share, in the same period the year before. Total revenue was down 8% to $9.33 billion compared to $10.09 billion in
the year-ago quarter.

General Electric Co. reported a profit of $3 billion, or 30 cents a share, down from $3.53 billion, or 34 cents a share, year earlier. Operating earnings were 33 cents a share, down from 39 cents a share. Revenue declined to $34.2 billion.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it was launching a new domestic money transfer service called “Walmart-2-Walmart” in partnership with Euronet Worldwide Inc subsidiary Ria Money Transfer, competing directly with Western Union Co. The service, to be launched on April
24, will let customers transfer money to and from more than 4,000 U.S. Walmart stores at what it says are lower fees than other such services.