Even though more corporations issued positive quarterly reports, Wall Street was lower at midday on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.4 percent lower to 12,570.66, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.7 percent to 2,449.10 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.57 percent to 1,431.92. The Russell 2000 index of small-caps dropped 0.82 percent to 787.55.

Investor sentiment was not helped by a new report from the National Assoication of Realtors that existing homes sales dropped by 0.8 percent in December. The inventory of existing homes for sale also fell, however, by 7.9 percent to 3.51 million. In addition, the Labor Department said that new jobless claims grew last week at their highest rate in 16 months.

Quarterly reports were released by companies in a number of sectors. Online auctioneer Ebay added $2.88 to $32.88 after it said its profits were up by 24 percent and sales grew by 29 percent in its most recent quarter. Nokia reported that profits were up by 19 percent, gaining 79 cents to $21 on the session so far. AT&T gained 26 cents to $36.89 on profits that were up 17 percent on more wireless subscribers.

Even though Ford Motor said it withstood its largest annual loss ever amid declining sales, the carmaker added 10 cents to $8.30 as investors were relieved that the news wasn’t worse.

Lockheed Martin added 81 cents to $91.95 on a quarterly report that showed earnings up by 28 percent on growth in its military hardware division. The defense contractor raised its full-year forecast on the basis on the new figures.

The New York equities markets were mostly down by early afternoon on Thursday despite gains in the telecommunications and metal-mining sectors. The Nasdaq Composite was about even after declines earlier in the day, at 2,338.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 percent to 11,153.18 on concerns in several sectors over interest rates. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 dropped 0.1 percent after gains earlier in the day to 1,301.15.

When Morgan Stanley upped its forecast on metals prices, miners and metal companies saw gains. Phelps Dodge added 5.4 percent to $81.21 on an upgrade from “equal-weight” to “overweight”. Upgrades also took aluminium companies Alcan and Alcoa up 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, with Alcan trading at $46.76 and Alcoa’s shares selling at $30.91.

The mobile phone portion of the telecommunications sector saw advances after Nokia said it believes that global handset sales will go up 15 percent this year. It had previously put the sales estimate at 10 percent. Nokia added 4 percent on the news, to $21.02, while Motorola gained 1.8 percent to $23.17. Texas Instruments, which makes chips for mobile phones, was up 3.1 percent to $32.97. Qualcomm advanced by 0.8 percent to $51.13.

Internet company Google, added to the S&P 500 today, dropped 2.3 percent to $385.88 on the announcement that it will issue 5.3 million new shares in association with its addition to the index. Before today’s losses, Google had added 15.5 percent since Thursday.