US stocks tread water after mixed earnings reports

Wall Street stocks were little changed early on Wednesday following another round of mixed earnings reports in a market buffeted by worries over slowing economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 25 284.44, up 0.4% from Tuesday's closing level.

The broad-based S&P 500 dipped slightly to 2 739.98, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2% to 7 421.85.

Wall Street stocks have spent much of October in retreat amid anxiety over rising US interest rates, trade war fallout and rising tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Strong results from Boeing on Wednesday helped give the market a boost after the aerospace giant raised its full-year earnings forecast amid strong demand for commercial and defense aircraft. Shares of Boeing rose 3.2%.

But other big companies fell following results, including AT&T and UPS. Analysts worry that US corporations are moving past the period of "peak earnings" growth following the lift from the US tax cut enacted late last year.