Wall Street Flat Ahead Of Earnings Season

Wall Street stocks finished a quiet session mostly lower on Thursday as investors looked ahead to bank results that will kick off first-quarter earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1 per cent to finish the day at 26,143.

The broad-based S&P 500 was flat at 2,888, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2 per cent to close at 7,947.

Investors are looking ahead to Friday's reports from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, which unofficially launch the reporting season that accelerates later this month.

Analysts have dropped their forecasts for the results, setting a low bar that analysts say could be easy to clear.

Tesla Motors fell 2.8 per cent following a report in Nikkei Asian Review that said Tesla and Panasonic were freezing an expansion plan at its US electric auto battery plant amid concerns over weakening demand for the vehicles.

A Tesla spokesperson said the company would make new investments "as needed," but that it had found "there is far more output to be gained from improving existing production equipment than was previously estimated". (AFP)