Stocks ended mostly higher Monday ahead of a flurry of earnings reports that could determine whether the economy is really getting better, as investors have been hoping over the past month as they plunged money back into the market.
Early signs were promising. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. surprised investors after the end of trading Monday when it released better-than-expected quarterly results and announced a $5 billion stock offering. The company had been scheduled to report results early Tuesday.
The buying helped the Dow Jones industrial average turn a 120-point deficit into a modest loss of 26 points by the time the closing bell sounded. Broader indexes managed to post gains. Trading volume was light, which can skew the market's moves.
Beyond banks, industrial stocks ended mixed after Boeing Co. and Chevron Corp. said the weak economy was hurting their results.
The market was unsettled by a New York Times report saying the Treasury has directed General Motors Corp. to lay the groundwork for a potential bankruptcy filing by June 1. GM might be forced to file if it cannot complete a plan to exchange debt for equity, according to the report.
The Dow fell 25.57, or 0.3 percent, to 8,057.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.17, or 0.3 percent, to 858.73, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.77, or 0.1 percent, to 1,653.31.
Analysts said some of the buying could reflect traders stepping in to cover misplaced bets that banks would fall when they post results this week. Traders who sell stocks "short" are forced to buy to avoid further losses.
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