Equities hovered around the flatline to end nearly unchanged Wednesday for a second consecutive day after a mixed bag of company results. Activity was muted as the market is awaiting a batch of high-profile earnings.

The Dow industrials declined 0.2 percent while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both flat. US Treasury yields rose, oil prices declined, and the dollar was mostly higher. Among sectors, best performers included utilities, health care, consumer discretionary, and real estate. Lagging were energy, communications services, technology, industrials, and materials.

Megacaps outperformed to bolster the major indexes with Amazon in particular having a good day to boost consumer discretionary.

Medical technology shares were the day's big winners, paced by Intuit Surgical and Abbott Labs on positive company news. Regional banks outperformed after better than expected results from Western Bancorp.

On the downside, Netflix was the day's featured loser after posting misses on earnings, revenues, and subscriptions. Morgan Stanley fell too after disappointing earnings and revenues.

Market Reflections track market reaction to the trading day's major events. Economic data, policymaker speeches, and company news are featured in this report as well as key indexes and financial instruments.

Understanding why markets respond as they do is fundamental for an investor. Market Reflections help explain how the day's events, news, and data impact the outlook for the economy and for market prices.