U.S. stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) fluctuated making modest moves and then dabbling in the red on better-than-expected earnings by Citigroup (C) and a better-than-expected consumer confidence report.

Citi, considered to be one of the most troubled banks, posted a quarterly loss of $1 billion and actually turned a profit of $1.6 billion before paying dividends, outperforming analysts’ expectations. This translated to a loss of $0.18/share compared to analysts’ forecast of a loss of $0.32/share.  Despite this outperformance, the bank was down 8% in intraday trading on concerns that headwinds in credit markets are persisting, states Jeff Kearns of Bloomberg.

The Financial Select SPDR (XLF), was down about 1% in morning trading; C is 1.8%

To add icing to the earnings cake, General Electric (GE) beat Wall Street’s expectations as well.  This was much-needed for a firm that has seem nothing but gloom, down 21.9% year to date.  GE announced earnings from continuing operations of $0.26/share as compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.21/share.

First-quarter earnings for the conglomerate were still down about 36% on waning sales and sharply lower profits from its ailing finance arm. This good news gave a little boost to the industrials, the Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS) gained about 0.2% in intraday trading, despite being down 9.2% for the year. GE is 15.6% of the fund.

To keep the better-than-expected ball rolling, Google (GOOG) was yet another company to beat analysts’ expectations.  The search engine giant reported net income of $5.16/share as compared to analysts’ forecasts of $4.93/share. Despite this outperformance, many are still unsure of Google’s outlook for the current period and immediate future.  The company is feeling the impact of the global recession posting only moderate revenue growth and was able to outperform by keeping its costs down, states John Letzing and Dan Gallagher of Market Watch.

Other earnings reports were not as positive.  Toymaker Mattel (MAT) said weak overseas sales and cautious retail orders led to wider first quarter losses than expected.  The company reported losses of $0.14/share as compared to expectations of a loss of $0.13/share.  Despite this, the stock gained about 11% in intraday trading.

Japan’s top chipmaker, Toshiba, didn’t perform much better.  The company announced that its loss for the previous year will be much bigger than previously expected and the largest loss in its history. Despite this bad news, Japan’s Nikkei index was up about 1.7%.

On a positive note consumer confidence seems to be on the rise. The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 61.9, the highest its been since September, and up from 57.3 in March, reports Courtney Schlisserman of Bloomberg.  This index has been battered and beaten by the poor performance in the housing and manufacturing sectors.  The good news is that the increase in consumer sentiment is indicative that things aren’t getting any worse and the depth of the recession may be bottoming out.

Investor sentiment is somewhat of on a rise as well.  The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX), fell 1.1% to 35.79.  The index measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, and is to its lowest levels in the last six months.

Black gold continues to linger around the $50/barrel mark.  Despite a slow economy, a surplus in supply, a drop in industrial activity and a fall in immediate expected consumption, many speculators believe that a economic rebound is imminent and the demand for crude oil will rise and outpace supply, making the commodity extremely valuable.  Additionally, investors are flocking to crude as a safety net.  Crude was trading north of $50/barrel in morning trading.  The United States Oil Fund (USO), is up about 0.3% in intraday trading, despite being down about 11.5% year to date.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 0.8%, the S&P 500 gained about 0.2% and the Nasdaq dropped about 0.6% in intraday trading.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

Tags: Commodity ETFs, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Financial, Industrials, NASDAQ, Oil, S&P 500, Sector ETFs, USO, VIS, VIX, XLF