Stocks are opening mostly lower on Wall Street as investors get ready for the beginning of corporate earnings season. Aluminum maker Alcoa reports earnings after the closing bell. The stock was flat in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 20 points to 13,362 early Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell a point to 1,460. The Nasdaq rose three to 3,101. Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, dropped 4 percent to $65.13 after saying that problems with two of its small chicken suppliers hurt sales more than expected in China. Agricultural products company Monsanto rose 4 percent to $99.48 after reporting that its profit nearly tripled as sales of its corn seeds expanded in Latin America. |