STOCKS SEESAW IN EARLY GOING
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By CNNMoney.com staffApril 28, 2011: 10:18 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks straddled the breakeven point early Wednesday following disappointing reports on U.S. economic growth and weekly jobless claims.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 17 points, or .1% S&P 500 (SPX) was up a point, or .1% and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) declined 2 points, or .1%.
The Dow was weighed down by shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) and Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), both of which reported earnings this morning.
Exxon Mobil reported a 69% jump in 1st-quarter profit of $10.7 billion. Investors weren’t all that impressed. Shares of Exxon Mobil had been down 1%.
Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble reported an improve in quarterly net profits and sales, but still disappointed investors. The company’s stock slipped 1%.
Following three days of gains, equities could be at risk of losing momentum, stated Joel Kruger, currency strategist at FXCM.
“We’ve observed a number of days of some fairly consistent equity getting,” he stated. But he added the multi-day rally “could be drifting away from fundamentals.”
Investors sent all 3 indexes to fresh multi-year highs Wednesday following Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s very first post-policy meeting press conference.
Economy: On Thursday, the Department of Commerce released its report on first-quarter gross domestic product, showing that GDP expanded at an annual rate of 1.8% throughout the 1st quarter.
That was a bit much less than expected. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecast an annual rate of growth of 2% throughout the 1st quarter.
The government also reported its weekly initial jobless claims information. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims totaled 429,000 last week.
The number of claims was a lot more than expected. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected them to fall to 390,000. It also marked the third week in a row that jobless claims came in above the key 400,000 level.
A report from the National Association of Realtors showed a 5.1% rise in pending home sales for the month of March, considerably a lot more than the 1.7% rise economists had expected.
Organizations 
epsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500) and Sprint Nextel (S, Fortune 500) also reported quarterly outcomes before the market open. Pepsi’s stock rose .4% in early trading whilst Sprint’s stock rose about 2%.
After the closing bell, analysts anticipate Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to post a quarterly profit of $4.8 billion, up 20% from a year earlier, on sales of $16.2 billion.
Exelon (EXC, Fortune 500) an electric utility, announced a merger with Constellation Energy (CEG, Fortune 500), a supplier of natural gas and other energy goods. The deal is worth $7.9 billion. Constellation’s stock rose 4%.
Planet markets: European stocks rose in afternoon trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down .2%, the DAX in Germany added .five% and France’s CAC 40 advanced .5%.
Asian markets ended mixed. Japan’s Nikkei index rallied 1.6%, but the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged down .4%.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.
Oil for June delivery rose 20 cents to $112.96 a barrel.
Gold futures for June delivery rose $14.60 to $1,531.70 an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.10 an ounce.
Bonds: The cost on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.32% from 3.37% late Wednesday. 
First Published: April 28, 2011: 9:48 AM ET