Stocks Open Lower on Modest Corporate Earnings

Investors were mostly unimpressed with the latest batch of corporate earnings which reflected continued weakness in the economy. The Dow drifted lower to 8136, down 31 points. Nasdaq fell 9 points to 8136.

On the upside

Sumitomo Mitsui acquired Citigroup's Japan brokerage businesses (NYSE: C) for $5.6 billion, a highly-anticipated move that would help shore up Citigroup's balance sheet.

Shares of McAfee (NYSE: MFE) rose after the computer security software maker reported a jump in quarterly profits.

General Cable (NYSE: BGC) posted lower 1st quarter profits, but the results for the wire and cable maker were better than expected.

On the downside

Insurers MetLife (NYSE: MET) and Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE: HIG) posted losses for the 1st quarter.

MasterCard (NYSE: MA) reported lower revenues and profits from its credit card and global payment operations.

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) posted sharply lower revenues and earnings due to the steep decline in oil prices versus year-ago levels. The results met most analysts' expectations, but the stock opened lower along with the rest of the market.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap eased 2 points to 485.