US stocks edge higher following mixed earnings

 US stocks rose modestly in early trade Wednesday following mixed corporate earnings reports.
About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,070.00, up 14.13 points (0.08 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.33 (0.02 percent) at 1,983.10, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6.87 (0.15 percent) to 4,515.56.
The modest rally followed Tuesday's decline in the wake of weak eurozone economic data.
Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com said US equities have been "ripe" for a pullback following last week's records and ahead of the impending end of the third quarter that will encourage money managers to take profits.
Home-goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond shot up 6.3 percent as its full-year earnings forecast came in at $5.00-$5.08, compared with analyst expectations for $5.01. Comparable sales in the second quarter rose 3.4 percent.
Homebuilder KB Home dropped 6.2 percent as fiscal third-quarter earnings of 28 cents per share missed analyst forecasts by 12 cents.
Management consultancy Accenture dipped 1.5 percent as it projected fiscal 2015 earnings of $4.74-$4.88 per share, below the $4.91 seen by analysts.
Oil equities dropped on a pullback in crude prices ahead of a US petroleum inventory report. Dow members ExxonMobil and Chevron fell by 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, while Anadarko Petroleum shed 0.9 percent.
Bond prices were flat. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury held steady at 2.54 percent, while the 30-year remained at 3.25, the same level as Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move inversely.