NEW YORK, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded lower on Wednesday as investors continued to watch more earnings reports.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 43.98 points, or 0.20 percent, to 22,041.36. The S&P 500 erased 2.68 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,472.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 20.94 points, or 0.33 percent, to 6,349.52.
The Walt Disney Company posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings but its sales missed market expectations. The media giant's stock slumped over 6 percent after the announcement.
With 90 percent of S&P 500 companies' earnings now reported following the fourth week of earnings season, results have exceeded analysts' expectations, with earnings growth tracking over 9 percent year-on-year, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report.
On the economic front, the number of job openings was at 6.2 million on the last business day of the month, a record high, the report from the Labor Department said on Tuesday. This latest reading was higher than 5.7 million in May. Enditem
