Wall Street encouraged by tech, less so by JPMorgan
US stocks finished mostly flat in a choppy session, as investors bet on strong technology earnings even as JPMorgan Chase's numbers weighed on other market sectors.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 7.41 points, or 0.06 percent, to 12,270.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Indexinched up 0.25 of a point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,314.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 16.73 points, or 0.61 percent, to 2,761.52.
European shares rose, with banking stocks boosted by forecast-beating results from Wall Street bank JPMorgan and strategists suggested there was further upside for the sector.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed up 0.7 percent at 1,135.24 points after a sell-off in the previous session when a bout of profit taking was sparked by Japan's worsening nuclear crisis.
Tokyo stocks tumbled, dropping for a second straight day on yesterday, on growing worries that the impact of the March 11 earthquake may be more severe than hoped for and as Japan put its nuclear crisis on par with Chernobyl.The Nikkei fell 1.7 percent or 164.44 points to 9,555.26. The broader Topix index dropped 1.6 percent to 838.51.
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