Wall Street settled flat again on Wednesday as investors weighed another fresh batch of corporate earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down about 80 points, while the S&P 500 Index lost 0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.03%.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
The first-quarter earnings season remained in the spotlight on Wednesday, with Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley shares slipped despite better-than-expected results as the lender's quarterly profit fell due to pressure from its investment banking unit. However, its wealth management revenue increased 11% year-over-year.
"The investments we have made in our wealth management business continue to bear fruit as we added a robust $110 billion in net new assets this quarter," said CEO James Gorman in the earnings release. "Equity and fixed income revenues were strong, although investment banking activity continued to be constrained."
Netflix shares also fell more than 10% after the streaming giant posted mixed results after closing bell on Tuesday. Notably, Netflix announced it is pushing back the broad rollout of its password-sharing crackdown to the second-quarter from releasing late Q1.
"While this means that some of the expected membership growth and revenue benefit will fall in Q3 rather than Q2, we believe this will result in a better outcome from both our members and our business," the company said in its earnings release.
Investors also got a look at the health of regional banks on Wednesday with Western Alliance's
Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" offered more insight into the central bank's next moves, with the economic review showing that March's banking crisis took a toll on financial activity. "Lending volumes and loan demand generally declined across consumer and business loan types," across the United States, the report said.
In the San Francisco region, which experienced the direct impacts of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, saw "residential and commercial real estate activity fell, and lending activity declined substantially ... lending activity decreased substantially. Communities across the Twelfth District faced heightened challenges in their ability to provide food, shelter, and services due to credit constraints and reduced philanthropic giving," the report said.
Looking ahead, investors will react to earnings from International Business Machines Corporation
