Sluggish mood on Wall St as earnings season kicks off; financials drop

Wall Street's main indexes were little changed at open on Wednesday, as a jump in shares of consumer staples were offset by a drop in financials on the eve of their financial reports.

Kroger rose nearly 7 percent after the grocery chain said it would explore a potential sale of its convenience stores business.
That led the consumer staples index up 0.36 percent. But those gains were offset by a 0.5 percent drop in financials.

Wall Street banks JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup both report on Thursday. But, analysts warn bank results will be held back by a lack of volatility compared to a year ago.

"Third quarter results of large banks are expected to be tepid," said Stephen Biggar, an analyst at Argus Research. "Trading revenue (will be) down due to low volatility and loan growth remaining flat to slightly negative."

With the S&P 500 up 14 percent in 2017, investors are betting on strong earnings growth across the S&P 500.

"It's only a question of valuations if they've gotten a little bit ahead of themselves, even though the earnings story remains positive," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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