Stocks close higher on weak earnings forecasts

• Stocks were mixed in Asia and down in Europe
• Investors waiting for next round of corporate earns
• Nasdaq composite index up 0.4% for the day

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed up, barely, Monday as traders unnerved by last week's disappointing corporate earnings digested a new round Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2.38 points to end the day at 13,345.89. The broader Standard & Poor's index finished down less than a point to 1,433.81.

The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index gained 11.34 points to end at 3,016.96.

A weak forecast from heavy equipment maker Caterpillar and other poor earnings results weighed on the market for the most of the trading session.

Caterpillar cut its forecast for full-year revenue and income, saying that the global economy is weaker than they had anticipated.

Clothing maker VF fell after its revenue came up short of what analysts were expecting.

The glum results from Wall Street giants Microsoft, General Electric and McDonald's on Friday took traders by surprise. Investors in Asia and Europe on Monday saw little reason to go against the flow.

"The U.S. market had a significant drop," said Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong. "A significant drop in the U.S. will have an impact on Asian markets as a whole."

Markets may stay subdued ahead of the release later in the week of U.S. data including monthly new home sales, durable goods orders and third-quarter GDP figures, some analysts said. The upcoming U.S. presidential election and developments in the Europe debt crisis also added uncertainty to the mix.

Traders also awaited corporate earnings including Facebook, Yahoo! and Texas Instruments.

On Monday, Britain's FTSE 100 closed down 0.2% to 5,822.91. Germany's DAX 30 ended the down down 0.7% to 7,328.05, and France's CAC-40 finished down 0.6% to 3,483.25.

Trading was subdued earlier in Asia. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose just 0.1% to close at 9,010.71, weighed down by a widening of its trade deficit in September.

Japan's Finance Ministry said exports plummeted 10% last month from a year earlier, hurt by financial and debt problems in Europe, and a surge in anti-Japanese sentiment in China.

In September, a territorial dispute with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea sparked anti-Japanese riots. In the aftermath, exports to China sank 14 from a year.

South Korea's Kospi lost 0.1% to 1,941.59 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7% to 4,541.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7% to 21,697.55 and mainland Chinese shares also posted gains. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 2,132.76 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.5% to 882.03.

Yip said that "hot money," or short-term speculative inflows, being funneled into Hong Kong are helping to support its stock market. The money is coming from investors who believe that mainland China's slowdown has bottomed out and will start to pick up stream in the final quarter of the year.

Benchmark oil for November delivery was down 69 cents to $89.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.05 to end at $90.05 per barrel in New York on Friday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3048 from $1.3023 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 79.81 yen from 79.27 yen.

The price of Gold (December futures contract) rose $2.10 to $1,726.10.