Mid-Day Recap: Stocks Flat on Mixed Earnings

With Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke singing the same tune to the Senate that investors heard from the House yesterday, market attention is focussed on mixed earnings reports. Poor earnings from Yahoo! and AMD put the direction of futures on a downward slope, but after mixed earnings from the financial sector the market regained its footing after 90 minutes of trading

As of 12:30, the S&P 500 is slightly higher at 957, the Dow is a 0.27% lower at 8939, and the NASDAQ is up +0.69% 1929.

Earnings Recap:

Morgan Stanley Disappoints:  The Q2 loss for Morgan Stanley was worse than estimates as the cost of repaying bailout money overtook new revenue. Earnings per share fell by $1.37 compared to last year, far worse than forecasts that were looking for a loss of just 54 cents. Net income was $149 million in the quarter, compared from $1.14 billion one year ago. An hour into the session, stock is down 1.5%.

Profit Surges at Wells Fargo: First, the good news â€