Wall Street treads water on earnings, data

NEW YORK -- Stocks were little changed on Thursday as disappointing earnings from Pfizer (PFE.N) and cautious outlooks from eBay (EBAY.O) and United Technologies (UTX.N) offset higher-than-expected results from

Stocks briefly added to losses after data showed factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted for a fifth straight month in April.

The market's sluggish trading sharply contrasted with Wednesday's rally -- the biggest in two weeks -- on reassuring results from Intel (INTC.O) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

International Business Machines Corp provided the biggest lift to the Dow industrials after the computer services company, which is seen as a bellwether of business activity, raised its 2008 outlook late on Wednesday. Its stock rose 2 percent to $123.10.

The biggest drags were drug maker Pfizer, which reported a larger-than-expected drop in profit, and industrial conglomerate United Technologies, which warned of a slowing economy.

"Pfizer and United Technologies being down are not really hitting the markets that hard. It seems like there's some underlying strength with IBM giving good bid to the market," said Mark Schlarbaum, head trader at Global Capital Management in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 3.91 points, or 0.03 percent, at 12,623.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 0.36 point, or 0.03 percent, at 1,365.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 8.21 points, or 0.35 percent, at 2,341.90.

Among Thursday's economic reports, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of business activity, which covers the Middle Atlantic states, recorded its worst performance in seven years.

Shares of Pfizer were down 3.3 percent at $20.40 and United Tech stock dropped 2.5 percent to $70.80.

Shares of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N) were up 1.5 percent after the investment bank reported write-downs of $6.5 billion in subprime mortgages and other risky debt, which met analysts' expectations.

Among the biggest drags on Nasdaq were shares of eBay after the online auctioneer said the softening U.S. and UK economies had modestly slowed demand. EBay shares were down 4.4 percent to $30.75.

Communications equipment makers sagged after Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's largest mobile phone maker, said it expects the mobile market to fall this year.

Shares of Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) were down 1.1 percent to $41.88 and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM.O) were down 0.9 percent at $119.24.

(Agencies)