DJIA Slumps Under Earnings Reports as Wall Street Closes Mostly Higher

Stocks closed the day mostly higher on Tuesday, following two consecutive down-days that finished off the previous week’s trading activity.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.27 percent, 16,414.44

• Standard & Poor’s 500: +0.28 percent, 1,843.80

• NASDAQ: +0.67 percent, 4,225.76

A number of major firms reported earnings throughout the day, with fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 results being the primary catalysts for stocks.

On the Dow:

It was a day to make the Dow regret the decision to remove Aluminum giant Alcoa (AA) from the index. The company’snearly 7 percent rise on the daycame after an upgrade on the stock was issued by JPMorgan (JPM) , and would have been a good way to offset the substantial losses taken by large and mega-cap stocks like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) , both of which dipped over one percent by the closing bell.

On the S&P:

Alcoa’s jump was a significant factor, but the Dow Chemical Company’s 6.6 percent gains, along with Facebook's (FB) 4 percent rise and Micron Technology’s (MU) addition of 3.3 percent by the closing bell were also crucial to the S&P’s closing in the green. Baker Hughes (BHI) , one of the largest oil & gas services companies in the industry, was up nearly 5 percent after releasing an impressive earnings report.

On the NASDAQ:

The NASDAQ did the best, however, with Blackberry (BBRY) adding nearly 10 percent by the closing bell on news that the company’s phones were still in fashion within the Pentagon and the larger National Security establishment in general. Tech and healthcare stocks pushed the exchange higher, with big gains for NII Holdings (NIHD) , Zynga (ZNGA) and Apple (AAPL) , along with Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Cell Therapeutics (CTIC) .

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