The Dow and S&P snapped their winning streaks Wednesday as disappointing earnings from two of Wall Street's biggest names overshadowed another round of earnings beats.
The Dow stumbled out of the gate, then bobbed in and out of positive territory throughout the morning, leaving the Dow chart looking like the Rocky Mountains.
But the Nasdaq rose for an 11th straight day after Apple once again hit its earnings out of the park. Apple beat on both revenue and EPS, causing analysts to say Apple is one of the few companies not partaking in the recession.
This is the Nasdaq's longest streak since September 1996. The biggest gainers during the streakwere Wynn Resorts , Starbucks and Liberty Global .
Starbucks shares shot up 18 percent Wednesday after the grande coffee chain posted a profit that blew past expectations, helped by aggressive cost cuts and store closings to help it weather the recession.
The Nasdaq has gained more than 10 percent during this streak. The Dow rose 9.5 percent during its seven-day run.
There were another handful of earnings beats today but what dragged the rest of the market down was disappointing results from Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. The Wells number beat analyst estimates but traders appeared to focus on the sustainability of the Wells numbers, while Morgan's loss was much broader than expectations.
Still, other banks finished higher, including Bank of America, after a KBW analyst did an about face and said the bank likely won't incur a $12 billion pretax charge in the first quarter. He now expects the bank to post a profit of 80 cents a share in 2010, a far cry from his prior estimate of a 10-cent loss.
Citigroup continued to rise, gaining another 5.7 percent. SunTrust and USBancorp also rose sharply.
Bank of New York Mellon tumbled 6.2 percent after the nation's largest trust bank reported its earnings fell 43 percent.
Pfizer was one of the biggest percentage gainers on the Dow after the drug maker beat its earnings target, helped by cost-cutting measures,and raised its full-year outlook.
Among other companies that beat this morning were Boeing , Eli Lilly and PepsiCo .
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was back on Capitol Hill today, testifying before the Senate. Bernanke said the central bank wants to shield monetary policy from political interferencebut understands it has to be accountable to taxpayers.
"We do think that the Congress has the right to see how we are using taxpayer money. Where we are concerned is that the Congress would be intervening in our specific policy decisions relating to monetary policy and the economy," Bernanke said when asked about a proposal to expand audits of the Fed. "So yes, we are quite willing to work with Congress to try to figure out exactly where the line should be," he said.
And in the day's economic news, mortgage applications were up 2.8 percentlast week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported. And the FHFA home-price index rose 0.9 percentin May from April.
Oil rose, settling at $65 a barrel, after crude supplies fell by 1.8 million barrels, less than the 2.1-million draw expected.
More earnings are due out after the bell today, including reports from eBay and SanDisk .
Advanced Micro Devices
was down over 10 percent after the chip maker
posted a wider-than-expected earnings loss.
Yahoo beat consensus on EPS but not revenue. Its shares rose.
Still to Come:
It's a jam-packed week of earnings, with about a third of the S&P—and half the Dow—reporting.
WEDNESDAY: Earnings from Qualcomm, eBay and Sandisk after the bell; Obama news conference on health care at 8pm ET
THURSDAY: Weekly jobless claims; existing-home sales; Earnings from AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, MMM, CIT Group, Fifth Third, PNC Financial, UPS, Xerox, Amazon, AmEx, Microsoft, Broadcom and Capital One
FRIDAY: Earnings from Ericsson, Ingersoll-Rand, Schlumberger; Red Hat replaces CIT in S&P 500 after the closing bell
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