U.S. stocks end mixed amid earnings reports

U.S. stocks closed mixed Tuesday, as Wall Street digested a batch of quarterly earnings reports from big companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 49.44 points, or 0.27 percent, to 18,053.60. The S&P 500 gained 6.46 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,100.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 19.69 points, or 0.40 percent, to 4,940.33.

Shares of Goldman Sachs jumped 2.29 percent to 162.66 U.S. dollars apiece Tuesday after the company delivered quarterly earnings above estimates and revenues shy of forecasts.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 1.58 percent to 112.68 dollars apiece Tuesday following the release of the consumer products and drug company's better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Netflix Inc. plummeted 12.97 percent to 94.34 dollars apiece Tuesday as the company's forecast of subscriber growth for the second quarter missed market estimates.

The streaming media company expected subscriber growth to slow to 2 million international members in the second quarter, well below market consensus.

Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2016 were expected to decrease 7.6 percent year on year, while the revenue is forecast to decline 1.3 percent.

On the economic front, U.S. privately-owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,089,000 units, reported the Commerce Department Tuesday.

This was 8.8 percent below the revised February estimate of 1,194,000 units, but was 14.2 percent above the March 2015 rate of 954,000 units.

Oil prices were also in focus, which rebounded strongly Tuesday as a strike of oil workers in Kuwait continued to boost the market. Endit