S&P 500 struggles for direction as investors weigh mixed quarterly results

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 struggled for direction Tuesday weighed down by mixed quarterly results and a struggle in big tech.

The S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.02%, or 7 points, and the Nasdaq fell 0.1% and

Bank of America continued the stream of mostly upbeat quarterly results seen from Wall Street banks, but Goldman Sachs came under pressure after reporting mixed results.  

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) fell more than 1% after the Wall Street giant reported first-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations weighed down by the sale of consumer loans in its consumer business Marcus.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) reported a beat on both the top and bottom lines, driven by a 25% jump in net interest income following a jump in interest rates.

Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), meanwhile, lifted guidance and reported better-than-expected quarterly results, but the healthcare products company also flagged the hit from lawsuits alleging that its talc products caused cancer persists.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) also reported first-quarter results that topped expectations, underpinned by supply-chain improvements, sending its shares up more than 2%

Big tech, meanwhile, gave up gains, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) leading to the downside for the second day in a row despite Wall Street downplaying the risk that the search engine giant could lose Samsung (KS:005930) as a partner to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). The New York Times reported on Monday that Samsung was mulling whether to ditch Google’s search engine from its devices for Microsoft’s Bing.

"We think an actual partner loss (per NYT article Monday) is highly unlikely...any such discussions (if they are indeed occurring, which we do not know for sure) would more likely be part of negotiation tactics from Samsung [to get more leverage in ad-revenue share negotiations],” UBS said

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) gained nearly 1% ahead of its quarterly results due after markets close.

In other news, Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) pared some losses, though remained in the red as hundreds of its flights were delayed after technical issues forced the airline to ground flights.