Stocks pared some of their losses late Thursday afternoon, but remained on track to close lower for the first time in five days. A batch of disappointing quarterly corporate earnings and company forecasts weighed on stocks for much of the day, with Coach and Pier 1 Imports among the biggest decliners.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was flat at 1,956 as of 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 10 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,896. The Nasdaq composite slid nine points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,353.