U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, as investors received disappointing corporate earnings and the price of oil dropped. In world markets, European stocks closed mixed, as the British FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and the DAX in Germany fell 0.4 percent. Asian markets also ended mixed, as the Shanghai Composite rose 0.7 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.4 percent. In U.S economic news, the Commerce Department reported factory orders rose 3 percent in March, which was better than the 2.5 percent rise economists had forecast. In U.S. company news, General Motors shares rose 2.5 percent, after the company reported a 26 percent rise in April monthly care sales. Competitor Ford reported a 16.4 percent rise in April sales, with its shares rising 0.5 percent after the news. Meanwhile, credit card company MasterCard reported earnings were up 24 percent from the same time a year ago. The company cited an 11.1 percent increase in transactions as the reason for the first-quarter rise. Shares of the company rose 3 percent. Pfizer Incorporated said its first-quarter profit rose 10 percent, due to lower costs for production and research and a smaller tax bill. The drug maker said its net income was $2.22 billion, up from $2.03 billion in 2010's first quarter. Excluding one-time items, income would have been $4.81 billion, down just over 1 percent from a year ago. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for June delivery fell $2.47 to $111.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $24.50 to $1,532.40 an ounce. Silver prices fell $2.97 to $41.15 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.15, or 0.0 percent, to 12,807.51. Financial shares were among the top performers on the Dow, with Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase closing up more than 1.5 percent. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.6, or 0.3 percent, to 1,356.62. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 22.46, or 0.8 percent, to 2,841.62.
