Stocks dip as investors hope for 7-day win streak

U.S. stocks, which are looking to post their first seven-session winning streak since September, opened lower Wednesday as investors digested mixed earnings reports, weak new home sales in March and sluggish stock performance abroad.

In morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 stock index are down about 0.2% each, while the Nasdaq composite is off 0.6%

Losses picked up after March new homes sales fell 14.5%, a big miss.

Americans love winning streaks, whether it's their favorite sports team or biggest stock holding. Profit-loving investors are watching to see if the suddenly hot S&P 500 can extend its winning ways to seven days.

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The benchmark U.S. stock index notched its sixth straight session win Tuesday, a rally that has pushed its shares up 3.5% to 1879.55 and within 11 points from its all-time closing high of 1890.90 from April 2.

The last time the S&P 500 had a seven-day winning streak was last September, when it rallied 3.4% from Sept. 3 through Sept. 11.

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If the broad market index can notch a new high, it will be driven by earnings, as major U.S. companies such as aerospace giant Boeing, Procter & Gamble and Dow Chemical, reported earnings that topped expectations, although P&G and Dow Chemical fell short of revenue projections.

Boeing shares were up 1.7% in early trading, Dow Chemical was 2% higher, while shares of P&G, which trimmed its full-year outlook, were down 0.9%.

So far earnings season has been solid yet unspectacular, as expectations were low due to a tough winter that hurt business. Of the 141 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 65% have topped expectations, which is better than the 63% long-term average, according to Thomson Reuters.

But tepid sales and resulting revenues conti! nue to weigh down sentiment. Only 54% of companies have topped revenue forecasts, far below the 61% long-run average.

"Continuing on our theme of the last few days, revenues beats have been much less frequent than EPS (earnings-per-share) beats this season," Bespoke Investment Group said.

Wall Street will be closely watching earnings reports after the bell from iPhone-maker Apple and social media darling Facebook.

Most European bourses were trading lower Wednesday. London's benchmark FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, Germany's DAX was off 0.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.5%.

Investors were also reacting to a reading on Chinese manufacturing from HSBC that showed a contraction for the fourth straight month. The HSBC China "Flash" PMI for April came in at 48.3, according to Barclays, slightly above a reading of 48 in March. Any number below 50 suggests contraction.