Stocks slip at start

Stocks fell at the start of trading Tuesday, as nervous traders braced for a wave of corporate earnings.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones industrial average slipped after the opening .

Before the bell, Manus Cranny, market analyst for MF Global in London, said the "decided lack of confidence in the London market this morning" stemmed from banking analyst Meredith Whitney, who downgraded Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) to "neutral" ahead of its third quarter earnings report, scheduled for Thursday.

"It could be an emotional and rocky third quarter both sides of the pond," wrote Cranny in a note to investors, adding that "U.K. banks are decidedly queasy on the back of the Goldman's downgrade."

Investors pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to a fresh one-year peak on Monday. The Dow gained 20 points, or 0.2%, leaving it about 114 points short of 10,000.

Companies: Before the open, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) reported a 5% decrease in third-quarter sales, to $15.1 billion, but an increase of 2% in earnings, to $1.20 per share. The producer of pharmaceuticals and household goods also raised its earnings guidance for the year, to a range of $4.54 to $4.59 per share.

Chipmaker Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) is slated to release its results after the closing bell.

AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) has reached a deal to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit for $2.2 billion.

Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) will reveal the legal advice it received related to its merger with Merrill Lynch, according to reports in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

World markets: Asian shares finished higher. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6% while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rallied 1.2%. Investors in Europe were more downbeat, with major indexes edging lower in midday trading.

Money and oil: The dollar fell versus major international currencies, including the euro, the yen and the pound.

The price of oil rose 72 cents to $73.99 a barrel.