NEW YORK -- A surprisingly strong housing report helped push the stock market mostly higher Wednesday, even as weak earnings reports from Intel and IBM weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average.
The Dow was down 23points at 13,529 as of 2:15 p.m., while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained four points to 1,458.
Even though the two tech giants disappointed, overall earnings results have come in much better than some investors had feared, said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management in Fort Lee, N.J.
"Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that things aren't all that bad," Veru said. "That's what you see happening now."
Global heavyweights such as FedEx and Caterpillar had warned investors that China's slowing economy and Europe's ongoing debt crisis would weigh on quarterly profits.
The stock market shot higher Tuesday as results from Mattel, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson beat expectations. For the week, the Dow is now up 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 is up 2.1 percent.
Analysts still expect that third-quarter earnings for companies in the S&P 500 will shrink for the first time since 2009.
IBM reported sales late Tuesday that dropped below Wall Street's expectations. On a call with analysts, IBM's chief financial officer said the company faced "more challenging" market conditions in September, the final month of the quarter, as cautious customers and a weakening euro undercut its results. IBM stock sank $11.76 in afternoon trading to $199.24.
Without the drop in IBM, the Dow would be 90 points higher. Stocks with higher prices carry more weight in the average of 30 large companies. Every move of $1 in any Dow stock is equivalent to moving the Dow average 7.68 points.
Intel warned that sales of personal computers will likely remain weak during the holiday season this year. The chip-maker cut its revenue estimates for the year-end quarter when it reported results late Tuesday. Intel's stock fell 64 cents to $21.72.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground on building new single-family houses and apartments at the fastest pace since July 2008. Housing starts surged to an annual rate of 872,000 in September, far above estimates by economists.
"You might think it's a misprint," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, in a note to clients. But over the past year, housing starts have climbed by 43 percent.
"If there was any doubt that the housing market was undergoing a recovery, even a modest one in the face of the terrible 2008 decline, those doubts should be erased by now," Greenhaus said.
In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index edged down two points to 3,098.
The housing report helped push the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 1.80 percent from 1.72 percent late Tuesday. Better economic news usually sends traders out of safe assets like Treasurys.