Tuesday April 10 2007 market

APStocks Open Flat Ahead of Earnings NewsTuesday April 10, 9:48 am ET By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer Stocks Open Flat As Investors Await Word on Earnings, Fed Speeches NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks opened essentially flat Tuesday as investors remained cautious ahead of a parade of first-quarter earnings reports that kick off when Alcoa Inc. reports after the closing bell. The aluminum producer is expected to post a profit of 75 cents per share. Wall Street looks to results from the component of the Dow Jones industrial average to not only gauge the pace of earnings for the quarter but as a proxy for the health of the overall economy.Stocks showed little overall movement Monday as investors awaited a sense of how companies fared during the first quarter and word on profits for the coming quarters. In the fourth quarter, Standard & Poor's 500 companies snapped an 18-quarter streak of double-digit profit gains. Wall Street expects profit growth for the S&P 500 will remain in the single digits for the first quarter.With no major economic data on tap, investors will look to speeches by three Federal Reserve officials to get a better idea of where the central bank stands on inflation and interest rates. A stronger-than-expected jobs report Friday dashed some investors' hopes that the central bank will soon lower interest rates.In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.58, or 0.05 percent, to 12,575.72.