The New York equities markets were virtually flat at midday on Thursday as some quarterly reports did not live up to expectations. At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped just 2.64 points to 11,008.78 and the S&P 500 dropped less than a point to 1,269.66. The Nasdaq Composite saw bigger losses, dropping 0.7 percent to 2,067.87.
Not all the earnings reports were disappointing. Apple Computer reported that its second-quarter profits were up 48 percent on sales of Macintosh computers and iPods. Shares in Apple were up 12.3 percent by noon to $60.73, but that still left the computer maker down 15.8 percent since the beginning of the year.
Motorola was ahead of expectations with its report that earnings were up 48 percent in the second quarter due to record handset sales. Shares advanced by 10.3 percent to $21.23.
Safeway added 7.6 percent to $27.63 on a report of profits that were 84 percent higher than last year during the same period.
Intel dropped 4.8 percent to $17.61 after it said that lower chip prices resulted in a 57 percent drop in profits in the second quarter. The chipmaker’s chief financial officer said that yearly sales would probably not meet estimates made in April.
Meanwhile, Johnson Controls dropped 10.2 percent $73 even though its earnings in the second quarter were up.