The main Wall Street indices have begun the day on a slightly mixed footing following the release of similarly contradictory quarterly results from a batch of corporate heavyweights.

Johnson&Johnson, Verizon Communications and Caterpillar are falling following the release of their latest financials.

Travelers and chemical maker Dupont, on the other hand, are moving up. The latter has guided higher than expected on its 2013 revenues.

Shares of Morgan Stanley have been downgraded by analysts at Susquehanna.

UBS has cut its target price on Apple to 650 dollars from 700 dollars before.

Important data ahead

The Federal Reserve's national activity index for the month of December has moderated to 0.02 from 02.7 in the previous month.

Existing home sales data will be released at 15:00.

Crude futures edge up
West Texas crude futures have begun the day rising by 0.32% to the 95.80 dollar per barrel mark on NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are now rising by 3 basis points to the 1.87%.



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