NEW YORK, Jul. 23, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Wall Street slipped in early trading on Friday as investors awaited results from European bank stress tests.
Investors avoided big moves before European regulators released the closely watched results from the bank stress tests, hoping to get more insight into the health of the European banking sector amid the sovereign debt crisis.
The latest batch of corporate earnings reports continued to comfort investors with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) , American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP) , Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) and McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) all reporting earnings that beat estimates. More importantly, their results showed that businesses and consumers are increasing their spending as the economy recovers.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 9.46 points, or 0.09 percent, to 10,312.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged down 0.10 points, or 0.01 percent, to 1,093.57 and the Nasdaq was down 4.71 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,241.18.
