By Christopher Whittall and Aaron Kuriloff 

U.S. stocks swung between slight gains and losses Thursday as a selloff in government bonds kept investors on edge.

While reports from roughly half of the S&P 500 suggest earnings may grow after five quarters of declines, reduced expectations for central-bank stimulus spurred selling in government debt and yield-sensitive sectors of the stock market such as real estate and utilities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15 points, or 0.1%, to 18215. The S&P 500 was flat, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%.

European stocks and bonds initially fell in tandem following the release of data showing the U.K. economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate in the third quarter. The stronger growth figures caused investors to scale back expectations for further central bank easing measures, which have helped prop up financial markets in recent months.

The Stoxx Europe 600 finished little changed, while U.K. government bonds were at the forefront of the bond selling. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to around 1.249% from 1.162% Wednesday, according to Tradeweb.

Preliminary data showed a 0.5% quarterly increase in U.K. gross domestic product in the third quarter, which was above analyst expectations. The pound fell 0.5% against the dollar to $1.2170, according to FactSet.

Some investors have hoped the Bank of England would further ease policy to boost the U.K. economy after announcing a wide-ranging stimulus package in August, which included restarting its quantitative-easing bond-buying.

European government bonds fell across the board, along with U.S. Treasurys. The yield on 10-year German bonds was 0.171%, compared with 0.094% Wednesday. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note was yielding 1.852%, up from 1.790% Wednesday.

Nick Gartside, international chief investment officer of global fixed income at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said stronger growth figures, a rise in inflation with higher commodity prices, and rhetoric from central bankers suggesting they may do less in the future had combined to fuel the recent rise in bond yields.

"One of the things that has helped support any kind of asset has been ultra accommodative central bank policy," said Mr. Gartside. "That is why a few markets are a little foggy, including bond markets."

Still, Mr. Gartside said the move higher in bond yields is a "correction rather than a reversal," adding he would use any selloff in bonds "to reload."

"It's starting to look like markets want to challenge the concept of the 'forever QE' policy," said Carl Hammer, chief currency strategist at Swedish lender SEB.

Real-estate stocks in the S&P 500, which tend to do better when bond yields are low and investors want dividends and income, declined 2.1%, while utilities shares lost 0.5%.

Investors were also analyzing a fresh set of corporate earnings, hoping to avoid a sixth consecutive quarter of declines from the year-earlier period for the S&P 500, the longest such stretch in FactSet records going back to 2008.

Shares in Ford Motor fell 1.4% after the auto maker reported a drop in earnings. Shares in Dow Chemical rose 2.1% after the company said revenue rose in the latest quarter.

Twitter reported another quarter of slowing revenue growth and said it would cut 9% of its global workforce. Shares rose 2.3%. Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com Inc. are due to report earnings after the close.

Shares in Qualcomm added 4.6% after the company, which is best known for designing smartphone chips, agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors for $39 billion.

Shares in Deutsche Bank rose 0.6% in Europe after the embattled German lender posted an unexpected profit and set aside more cash to cover litigation costs. Shares in Barclays gained 4.8% after the lender reported roughly flat net profits in the third quarter compared with the previous year as well as a sharp bump in fixed-income revenue.

"Earnings season [is] in full flow and the numbers are not that bad," said Jeroen Blokland, a senior portfolio manager at asset manager Robeco. Mr. Blokland said he may well close an underweight position in U.S. stocks if earnings continue to improve.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.8% as data showing a slowdown in Chinese industrial profit growth in September from the previous month weighed on sentiment.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 closed down 1.2.%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average ended 0.3% lower.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of major currencies, rose 0.4%. The index is up nearly 3% in October as expectations of a Federal Reserve rate increase in December have grown.

U.S. crude oil prices gained 1.4% to $49.85 a barrel.

Write to Christopher Whittall at christopher.whittall@wsj.com and Aaron Kuriloff at aaron.kuriloff@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2016 14:02 ET (18:02 GMT)