Stocks give back gains on rising global fears

Stocks cut earlier gains and were mostly lower at midday Tuesday as international conflicts put a damper on a batch of mostly positive earnings reports.

Investors fear the global economic effects of tougher European Union sanctions against Russia as the EU joins the U.S. in punishing Russia for its involvement in the downed Malaysia Airline plane that killed 298 people.

Increased violence in Gaza as Israel continued its campaign against Hamas added to investor unease.

In earlier trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose back above the 17,000 level before retreating and was down less than 0.1% at 16,980.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.1%. The Nasdaq was looking to break a three-day slide.

STOCKS: USA TODAY's markets blog^[1]

In earnings news:

• Pharmaceutical firms Merck and Pfizer saw revenue drop but reported better-than-expected earnings^[2] which pleased Wall Street. Both companies are Dow components and Merck jumped 1.5% and Pfizer moved up 0.2%

• UPS shares tumbled 3% after the package delivery company reported a 58% drop in profit^[3], missing Wall Street estimates.

On Wednesday, the U.S. will release gross domestic product figures for the April-June quarter and Federal Reserve will issue its statement on the economy and monetary policy after the conclusion of its two-day meeting.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.6% to 15,618.07 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.9% to 24,640.53.

European markets were higher. London's FTSE 100 index was up 0.6% and Germany's DAX rose 0.7%.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Monday with the Dow rising 22.02 to 16,982.59 and the S&P bumping up 0.57 to 1978.91. The Nasdaq fell 4.65 to 4444.91.

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