Wall Street opened muted Wednesday, with Netflix's disappointing results pressuring market sentiment as investors tiptoe through a high-stakes earnings season.

At 9:30 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.14 points, or 0.01%, to 46,930.88, the S&P 500 gained 2.53 points, or 0.04%, to 6,737.88 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 19.34 points, or 0.08%, to 22,934.33. 

Shares of Netflix fell 6.4% in premarket trading after the streaming giant missed Wall Street's third-quarter earnings targets.

A 7.6% drop in Texas Instruments, following lower-than-expected revenue and profit forecasts from the chipmaker, weighed on Nasdaq futures.

Peers Microchip Technology dropped 2.7%, while NXP Semiconductors and ON Semiconductor lost more than 2% each.

With equities hovering near record highs and valuations stretched thin, investors need more than earnings beats to justify lofty price tags.

Despite strong results from several big names on Tuesday, markets remained indecisive. The S&P 500 ended virtually unchanged, the Nasdaq dipped slightly, while the Dow outperformed, closing up 0.5%.

So far, 78 S&P 500 companies have reported, with 87% beating estimates, according to LSEG data. Analysts expect third-quarter earnings growth of 9.2% year-on-year, up from 8.8% at the start of the month.

All eyes are now on Tesla, which will kick off 'Magnificent Seven' earnings after markets close. Its shares rose 0.2%.

AT&T added more wireless subscribers than expected for the third quarter, sending its shares up 2.2%.

"Investors will also be on the alert for further tech tie-ups, such as the recent partnership between chipmaker AMD and OpenAI," Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said.

GEOPOLITICS AND DATA TROUBLES

Geopolitical jitters continued. A planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold, while uncertainty swirled around a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Despite recent signs of tensions thawing between Washington and Beijing, Trump reignited doubts on Tuesday, saying the meeting with Xi "maybe won't happen."

Meanwhile, Trump refused top Democratic lawmakers' request to meet until the three-week-old U.S. government shutdown ends.

With the shutdown stalling the release of key economic data, Federal Reserve policymakers may be forced to navigate next week's policy meeting without a full picture of the economy.

Still, Friday's consumer price report could offer some clarity on inflation. September's core CPI is expected to hold steady at 3.1%.

Among other share moves, GE Vernova added 0.8% after posting a third-quarter profit.

Mattel shares slipped 6% after the Barbie-maker missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit.

Alphabet almost erased losses after a 2.4% fall on Tuesday. Bloomberg News reported Anthropic was in talks with Google to secure additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of dollars.