Wall Street flat on earnings; IBM pressures Dow

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 closed flat on Wednesday as a mixed bag of corporate earnings failed to give investors the confidence to push equities higher with the index near record levels. For the second day in a row, the Dow posted outsized losses following weak results from one of its components while the Nasdaq climbed, with BlackBerry one of its biggest boosts. International Business Machines Corp lost 3.3 percent to $182.25, the biggest drag on the Dow after the tech giant missed revenue expectations for a fourth straight quarter amid weakening demand, particularly in growth markets like China. The results followed disappointments from Verizon , Travelers and Johnson & Johnson , which weighed on the blue-chip index on Tuesday.