Stocks end mixed as investors await earnings

• Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to post lower 3Q profits
• But Wall Street sees profit rising nearly 10% in Q4
• Investors remain optimistic that Europe's central bank will help

NEW YORK -- Mixed signals tugged major stock indexes lower Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 32.75 points, 0.2%, to 13,482.36. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index finished the day up 1.26 points, 0.1%, at 1,445.75, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite index closed up 6.51 points, or 0.2%, to 3,120.04.

Earlier in the session, stocks had been modestly higher on upbeat news about the housing market from CoreLogic, a private research group.

But investor sentiment turned negative after Spain's prime minister said he's not preparing a request for a bailout loan.

For nearly a month, traders have been anticipating that the Spanish government would ask for help. Spain needs to ask for money from Europe's bailout fund before the European Central Bank can start buying its government bonds.

Utilities and health care stocks, where investors often retreat in a slow-growing economy, were among the few industry groups in the S&P 500 to rise. Materials and energy companies sank the most.

The country's largest fertilizer company, Mosaic, said weak demand from China and India weighed on its profits. Mosaic, Dupont and stocks of other companies in the materials industry fell.

Mosaic reported net income and sales early Tuesday that fell short of analysts' estimates. The company blamed slumping demand for its fertilizer overseas as well as hurricanes for slower production. The results pushed the company's stock down $2.28, a 4% drop, to $55.73 for the day.

The market could look quiet until the government gives its monthly jobs report on Friday, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies at ING Investment Management. Economists expect the unemployment rate increased to 8.2% in September from 8.1% in August.

Zemsky said a surprise swing up or down "could change the direction of the stock market and the presidential election.

Core Logic, a private provider of real estate data, said U.S. home prices in August rose 4.6% compared with the same month last year. Prices also rose 0.3% from July, the sixth consecutive month of gains.Other gauges of the housing market have improved in recent months, including home sales.

On Monday, the manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management also showed improvement. ISM's main index nosed above 50, a reading that signals growth. The index had been below 50 from June through August.Investors are also looking ahead to quarterly earnings, which begin in earnest when the aluminum company Alcoa reports results Oct. 9.

Elsewhere Tuesday, the price of benchmark crude oil rose 20 cents to $92.68 per barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note sank to 1.62% from 1.63% Monday after Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said a bailout request wasn't coming.

European markets closed slightly lower before Rajoy spoke. Benchmark stock indexes fell 0.3% in Germany, 0.2% in Britain and 0.6% in France. Borrowing costs fell slightly for Spain and Italy.

Among other stocks making big moves:

— Reports that Deutsche Telekom may buy the cellphone carrier MetroPCS Communications sent MetroPCS's stock up 18%. Bloomberg News reported that the board of Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile USA, would vote to approve the deal Wednesday. MetroPCS gained $2.35 to $13.87.

— PetSmart rose 85 cents to $68.41. Standard & Poor's said the pet-store chain will replace Sunoco in the S&P 500 index at the end of trading Thursday. The S&P 500 is the most commonly used benchmark for stock mutual funds. When a company joins the index, mutual fund managers are more likely to buy it. Sunoco was bought by Energy Transfer Partners.

Clearly, the start of third-quarter earnings season is highly anticipated. The bar for the upcoming third-quarter earnings season has been set low. How low? For the first time since the financial crisis, analysts are expecting companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 to post lower profits than in the same period a year ago.

That leaves investors to wonder whether the less-than-robust earnings expected for the July-through-September quarter mark the bottom in the weakening profit picture. Earnings have been hurt by slowing economic growth in the U.S., Europe and China and rising energy and commodity prices, which act like a tax on consumers and businesses.

"The primary focus will be on whether third-quarter results will be the trough in this earnings cycle and if (future) quarters will exhibit a gradual acceleration in growth," Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, noted in a research report.

Analysts estimate profit growth will decline 1.8% in the third quarter, which S&P says may be "overly pessimistic." Wall Street sees profit rising nearly 10% in the final three months of 2012 and 11.6% in 2013.

But those estimates may be too high and the profit correction may last longer than optimists believe, Gina Martin Adams, senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, warned in a report.

"Usually when the S&P 500 loses earnings momentum," she says, "it is difficult to re-establish so quickly." Adams expects lower earnings through the first quarter of 2013 and advises investors to remain cautious.

Contributing: USA TODAY's Adam Shell in New York; Associated Press