A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 17, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks closed mixed with the Dow out front on Tuesday, as a string of solid earnings lured investors to industrials and capital goods.

The S&P 500 was essentially unchanged at the closing bell, while weakness in growth and microchip stocks pulled the tech-laden Nasdaq to a nominally lower close.

"We're at a little bit of a point of indecision, where nobody feels particularly strongly about anything," said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia. "That reflects itself in reduced reaction to earnings surprise."

Third-quarter earnings season has shifted into overdrive, with corporate giants such as General Motors, GE Aerospace, 3M and Coca-Cola posting generally upbeat results. But with major U.S. stock indexes hovering near record highs and valuations stretched, upbeat results alone could prove insufficient to sustain investor risk appetite.

"The earnings are better than expected as companies continue to gain slightly in terms of margins, which suggests that (companies) have to be passing through the tariffs or pushing the tariffs back onto the importers," Green said, adding "nothing is jumping out today to say that there's a strong opinion being expressed anywhere."

General Motors lifted its forecast and tempered its anticipated tariff hit. The automaker's shares jumped 14.9%.

Coca-Cola shares gained 4.1% after solid consumer demand drove its better-than-expected results, while diversified manufacturer 3M advanced 7.7% after hiking its full-year forecast, bolstered by its focus on higher margin products and cost controls.

Aerospace and defense companies Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX all raised their forecasts, benefiting from solid demand for war machinery.

The S&P 1500 Aerospace/Defense index advanced 1.9%.

Netflix dropped 5.8% in extended trading after the streaming company missed earnings targets.

So far, 78 of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported. Of those, 87% have beaten Wall Street expectations. Analysts currently foresee aggregate third-quarter S&P 500 earnings growth of 9.2% year-on-year, more robust than their 8.8% estimate as it stood on October 1, according to LSEG data.

High-profile results from Tesla, IBM, Procter & Gamble and Intel are also on tap this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 218.16 points, or 0.47%, to 46,924.74, the S&P 500 gained 0.22 points, or 0.00%, to 6,735.35 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 36.88 points, or 0.16%, to 22,953.67.

Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, consumer discretionary and industrials led the gainers, while utilities suffered the largest percentage loss.

Shares of Warner Brothers Discovery surged after the company announced it is considering an outright sale, citing interest from several potential buyers, in the latest media shakeup. Late in the session, the board rejected an offer from Paramount Skydance. The company's stock surged 11.0%.

The government shutdown, now in its third week, has left investors, economists and policymakers in the dark in the absence of official data, complicating the efforts of the data-dependent Federal Reserve.

Even so, the central bank will implement two more 25-basis-point reductions to its key policy rate by year-end, according to a Reuters poll of economists, who remain divided regarding the Fed's path forward in 2026.

U.S. President Donald Trump also struck a positive tone on trade, saying he expects to reach a "fair deal" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, while downplaying tensions over Taiwan.

Markets will keep an eye on Trump's upcoming meeting with Xi on the sidelines of next week's economic summit in South Korea.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.27-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 302 new highs and 47 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,203 stocks rose and 2,454 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.11-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 63 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.73 billion shares, compared with the 20.26 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis)