Market Snapshot July 28, 2009, 2:25PM EST

Stocks End Mixed on Earnings, Confidence News

The Nasdaq finished in the green Tuesday, while late-session bargain hunting helped the Dow and S&P 500 pare losses

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U.S. stocks closed narrowly mixed Tuesday as early price dips fueled by disappointing economic and earnings reports paved the way for late-day bargain hunting.

Banks and biotech-related issues outpaced the broader market after reports showed a drop in the Conference Board's consumer confidence index and lingering weakness in the housing sector.

On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished lower by 11.79 points, or 0.13%, at 9,096.72. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down 2.56 points, or 0.26%, to 979.62. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 7.62 points, or 0.39%, to 1,975.51.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 16 stocks were lower in price for every 14 that advanced. Nasdaq breadth was 14-12 positive.

Among the S&P industry groups leading the market lower Tuesday: oil & gas equipment & services (-3.88%), gold miners (-3.15%), industrial REITs (-3.15%), advertising (-2.86%), and agricultural products (-2.83%).

Groups on the upswing included building products (+5.75%), health care facilities (+3.84%), reinsurance (+2.16%), biotechnology (+1.71%), and electronic equipment & instruments (+1.29%).

Treasuries and the dollar index rose. Crude oil and gold futures fell.

Traders weighed some downbeat news Tuesday. Office Depot's (ODP) earnings came up shy of expectations, falling 16%.

U.S. Steel (X) posted a second-quarter loss per share of $2.92, vs. earnings per share of $5.65 one year earlier, on a 68% sales decline.

Viacom's (VIA) earnings were dented by a drop in ad revenues.

Bank of America (BAC) confirmed plans to shutter about 10% of its branches.

According to newswire reports, General Electric (GE) said most of its finance portfolio was performing as expected, and it does not think it will have to raise more capital to carry it through the current downturn.

On the positive side, Amgen (AMGN) raised its guidance and announced a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on a bone drug, boosting their shares.

Coventry Health Care (CVH) also raised earnings guidance.

Virgin Mobile USA (VM) agreed to be acquired by Sprint Nextel (S) in a deal valued at about $483 million, which includes Sprint's current 13.1% fully diluted ownership interest in Virgin.

SPSS Inc. (SPSS) agreed to be acquired by IBM Corp. (IBM) for $50 per share in cash, or a total of about $1.2 billion.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 46.6 in July from 49.3 the month before. The reading was also below the 49.7 expected by markets. Both the present situation index and the expectations index saw declines. The present situation index edged down to 23.4 from 24.8, which was well below the 65.8 reading seen last July . Expectations fell to 62.0 from 65.5 the month before, but better than the 42.7 reading seen a year ago.