Afternoon Markets: Dow holds steady on Morgan Stanley results

The Dow Jones held its level in early trading today, despite worrying results from Morgan Stanley.

The investment bank frightened the index pre-open by announcing net revenue fell 11% to $5.4bn in Q2, its third successive quarterly loss. However, shortly after opening, the index was up two points, or 0.03%, to 8,918. Consumer retail-sensitive stocks gained, with Home Depot up 1.02% to $24.71, McDonalds advancing 0.99% to $59.21 and Kraft Foods climbing 0.8% to $27.8. American Express fell the most, dropping 1.87% to $28.83, while heavy goods manufacturer Caterpillar retreated 1.52% to $38.86. In the UK, the FTSE 100 was up 14 points, or 0.3%, to 4,495, it’s closest to the 5,0...