Four years after he began his project to write out every word of the Bible, Phillip Patterson penned the very last lines Saturday at an upstate New York church.

"Every single curly-q, every single loop, it was all worth it," said Patterson, 63, moments after inking the final two verses of the King James Bible. "I'm really going to miss this writing."

It took Patterson just a few minutes to copy the final lines of the Book of Revelation before a crowd of about 125 people at St. Peter's Presbyterian Church in Spencertown. He ended the ceremony by saying "Amen."

Patterson, of Philmont, began copying the complete King James Bible in his neat, looping handwriting in 2009. He spent two years copying the first five books of the Bible as a prototype before starting fresh. He said he'll spend about another year working on the book's binding and covers before donating the fully completed Bible more than 2,400 pages to St. Peter's as a gift.

For now, he said, he'll just have to get used to his new life without holding a Pigma Micron pen every day.

"I'm going to miss the writing, that's what I'm going to miss," he said. "My fingers are fine, no callouses."

Patterson has said he started the project to learn about the Bible, not as a spiritual quest. But he said the project has helped him become more patient, confident and loving.

The project was slowed by his health problems, including AIDS and anemia. The retired interior designer relies on two canes and leans on walls and furniture to get around his apartment near the Massachusetts border.

Paterson worked as much as 14 hours a day on his project.

The degree of secrecy afforded Covered California appears unique among states attempting to establish their own health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's signature health law.

An Associated Press review of the 16 other states that have opted for state-run marketplaces shows the California agency was given powers that are the most restrictive in what information is required to be made public.

In Massachusetts, the state that served as the model for Obama's health overhaul, the Health Connector program is specifically covered by open-records laws. The same is true in Idaho, where its exchange was established as a private, nonprofit corporation, and in New Mexico.

The Maryland Legislature subjected its exchange to the state's public information act, but protected some types of commercial and financial information.

In California, the explicit exclusions from open-records laws may run afoul of the state constitution, said Terry Francke, head of Californians Aware, a group that promotes government transparency.

If the Legislature wants to limit access, the state constitution requires it produce findings that demonstrate the need for shielding information from the public. In the bill that authorized the exchange, the Legislature devoted two sentences to address that issue. It argued the cloaked spending was "necessary" to protect "powers and obligations to negotiate on behalf of the public."

Those provisions are vulnerable to being declared unconstitutional, according to Francke.

He said, in essence, lawmakers are saying they need it because they need it, with no details or evidence to support it. The Legislature should have answered the questions, "Why couldn't the exchange do its job without this secrecy? What's the worst that could happen?" Francke said.

Exchange spokesman Dana Howard said the agency complies with state law but declined to discuss in detail how it determines what is public and what is not.

"I'm not going to go down item by item, about how it is and what kinds of meetings and what was talked about," he said.

It's routine in government to keep bids secret until contracts are awarded, so one vendor does not get an unfair advantage over others. After a bid is awarded, contracts generally become fully public.

In setting up the California exchange, lawmakers gave it the authority to keep all contracts private for a year and the amounts paid secret indefinitely. "Except for the portion of a contract that contains the rates of payment, contracts entered into pursuant to this title shall be open to inspection one year after their effective dates," reads the code specifying what exchange records are exempt from public disclosure.

According to agency documents, Covered California plans to spend nearly $458 million on outside vendors by the end of 2014, covering lawyers, consultants, public relations advisers and other functions.

Other exchange records that are allowed to be kept secret include those that reveal recommendations, research, strategy of the board or its staff, or those that provide instructions, advice or training to employees. Minutes of the board meetings also are exempt from disclosure.

The indefinite ban on releasing rates of pay to companies and individuals receiving contracts also goes beyond exemptions for other state health programs, such as Healthy Families, which withholds rates of pay from disclosure for up to four years, but not permanently.

In response to an AP public records request, the agency released information on a dozen competitively bid contracts issued since early 2011. They included $14 million for a 19-month contract with Ogilvy Public Relations for marketing and other services; $400,000 for Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a four-month deal developing a small business program; and $327 million for a five-year deal with consulting giant Accenture to develop a web portal and enrollment system for those who will seek coverage.

Those contracts also are accessible on the agency's website, along with about two dozen requests for services the agency has published. But it's not clear how many contracts the agency has executed, for how much or with whom. Staff counsel Gabriel Ravel said in an email that the agency "exercised its discretion to waive this exemption" for the contracts it released to AP.However, "all other existing contracts are confidential and privileged," he wrote.

The closeted spending was quietly authorized in a bundle of amendments added to the bill just days before it was passed by the Senate and Assembly during a blitz of activity in August 2010, when California was sprinting to become the first state to embrace the most extensive health care changes since Medicare.

Legislative staffers who worked on the technical language in the bill discussed the possibility of limiting the scope of the records exemption but settled on making it comprehensive after concluding it was not practical to try to determine what should be left out.

No public hearing was held on the provision because legislative leaders did not consider it substantive enough to send the bill back to committee for an airing, according to the office of Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.

Statements issued to the AP by his office said the bill met the constitutional test and "contains the relevant findings," while striking a practical balance between the need for confidential rate negotiations with medical plans and a board that meets in public and is covered by open-meetings law.

"At the time of the drafting of the bill in 2010, this was a non-controversial, technical provision modeled on the same exemption long provided to successful government health insurance programs, including the state's Healthy Families Program," one statement said.

Perez's account that there was agreement on the confidentiality rules in the Senate Health Committee was disputed by former Sen. Sam Aanestad, a Republican on the panel who said he opposed those blanket privacy rules and the broader bill creating the exchange.

"This is such an untested field, there has to be strict illumination and oversight from day one," said the retired oral surgeon. Empowering bureaucrats to make unilateral decisions on access to contracting records "bodes for disaster."

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Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Barry Massey in Santa Fe, N.M., John Miller in Boise, Idaho, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.

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Follow Michael R. Blood at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP .

Some investors are pushing for a separation in Dimon's roles and seeking more oversight due to the "London Whale" trading losses. Votes on the non-binding recommendation will be tallied on May 21.

The investors, BlackRock Inc , Vanguard Group Inc and Fidelity Investments - which together control 12 percent of the shares - are still on the fence, the Journal said quoting people close to the firms. (http://r.reuters.com/kek87t)

Two of the bank's top 10 shareholders have told Reuters that they will consider voting in favor of the proposal.

JPMorgan's $6.2 billion loss stemmed from bets by London-based Chief Investment Office trader Bruno Iksil on an index for credit default swaps. His outsized positions earned him the nickname "London Whale" from hedge fund traders taking the other sides of his positions.

The three investors and JPMorgan were not immediately for comment outside U.S. business hours. The bank's board has said it opposes the shareholder proposal and that the company's handling of the trading loss shows its current governance works.

(Reporting by Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - As three Cleveland women reunited with their families on Tuesday after vanishing for about a decade in their own neighborhood, police scoured the house they escaped from for clues on how they could be held captive for so long with no one noticing.

Cleveland authorities said there was one attempt to visit the home in 2004 on an unrelated matter but no one answered the door. They said they combed through records and found no other calls to the house nor reports of anything amiss in the years the women were missing.

But neighbors said they had made more than one call to police about suspicious activity at the house.

Amanda Berry, 27, who disappeared in April 2003, along with Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who went missing in 2002, were held captive at the house.

Rescued with them on Monday was a 6-year-old girl who police said was Berry's daughter. She would have been conceived and born during Berry's captivity.

Israel Lugo, a neighbor, said he called police in November 2011 after his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help. He said police came and banged on the door several times but left after no one answered.

Lugo said about eight months ago, his sister saw Ariel Castro, who owns the house, park his school bus outside the house and take a large bag of fast food and several drinks inside.

"My sister said something's wrong ... That's when my mom called the police," he said. Lugo said police came and warned Castro not to park the bus in front of his house.

Cleveland police, who had brothers Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50 arrested as suspects in the case, did not immediately respond to repeated requests seeking comment about the reported calls.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Frank Jackson said: "We have no indication that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house on Seymour Avenue."

Monday evening's rescue, described as a "miracle" by one family member, unfolded with a frantic emergency call from a woman who told a 911 operator she was Amanda Berry, the subject of years of searches.

Berry had escaped from the two-story house in the low-income neighborhood on Cleveland's West Side with the help of a neighbor who told police he heard screaming and helped her kick out a locked screen door.

SEARCHES OVER THE YEARS

The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus were well known in Cleveland, although Knight's disappearance had attracted less attention, police said. Just last month a vigil was held to mark the ninth anniversary of DeJesus' disappearance.

Anthony Quiros, 24, who grew up next door to the house where the women were found, said Ariel Castro had been an onlooker as police dug up a Cleveland lot looking for remains in the case on a tip that proved false.

"He also came to a vigil and acted as if nothing was wrong," said Quiros. He said he saw Castro comforting DeJesus's mother about a year ago.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

On a Facebook page believed to be his, Castro said last month that he had just become a grandfather for a fifth time. Court records show he was arrested in 1993 on a domestic violence charge that was subsequently dismissed. I

Neighbor Anthony Westry said a little girl often could be seen peering out the attic window of the Castro house.

"She was always looking out the window," he said. Castro would take her to the park to play very early in the morning, "not around the time you would take kids to play," he said.

Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003, and Gina DeJesus was last seen at a telephone booth as she was walking home from school.

A man who helped to look for DeJesus, Pastor Angel Arroyo, said he and her family members had handed out flyers years ago in the neighborhood where she was found.

"We didn't search hard enough. She was right under our nose the whole time," Arroyo said.

The neighborhood houses are typically separated only by a driveway. Two houses to one side of the Castro house are boarded up.

Children and Family Services authorities went to the house in January 2004, more than a year after Knight disappeared and eight months after Berry went missing, because Ariel Castro had left a child on a school bus, the mayor said.

They "knocked on the door but were unsuccessful in connection with making any contact with anyone inside that home," he said.

Police said Castro had been interviewed extensively during that investigation and no criminal intent was found regarding the child left on the bus.

By law, the Castro brothers must be charged within 36 hours of their arrests, which took place on Monday evening.

"BELIEVE IN MIRACLES"

After their rescue, the three women were taken to a local hospital, reunited with family and friends, and released.

"If you don't believe in miracles, I suggest you think again," DeJesus' aunt Sandra Ruiz said to reporters on Tuesday in Cleveland. Her comments were televised by local station WJW.

"This is a miracle," Ruiz said. But she added: "Watch who your neighbor is because you never know."

The case is not the first time Cleveland has witnessed a horrific story close to home that raised questions about the thoroughness of police investigations.

In 2009, police discovered a home in Cleveland where Anthony Sowell had imprisoned and killed 11 women. Family members of some victims filed a lawsuit against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case.

Sowell was convicted in 2011 and is on death row.

FBI and other law enforcement officials were searching the Castro house as well as other properties, said police, who did not elaborate.

Neighbor Joe Popow said he found it chilling to have known Castro.

"After all this has happened, I think, Oh my God, what did I miss? This person came to my house," he said.

During her 911 call, Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing from, and she indicated she knew her disappearance had been widely reported in the media.

"Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry can be heard saying in a recording of the call released by police.

The discovery of the three women was reminiscent of the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was snatched from her northern California home at age 11 by a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, and kept in captivity for 18 years before being rescued in 2009.

During that time she was repeatedly raped by her abductor and gave birth to two girls fathered by him.

Dugard released a statement on Tuesday, saying: "As simple as it sounds, these women need the opportunity to have the privacy to heal and reconnect."

"I know individuals are strong in spirit and can be resilient in crisis. I wish them the best in their journey," she said.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg, Greg McCune and Atossa Araxia Abrahamian; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool, Bernard Orr)

Gen. Garad Nor Abdulle, a senior police official said the members of the Qatari delegation who were being escorted in the interior minister's convoy were unharmed and safely reached their hotel.

Abdulle said the interior minister was not in the convoy.

Mohamed Abdi, an officer at the scene of the blast, said four civilians and a soldier died immediately. Another two people died in hospital and 18 were being treated of wounds from the blast, said Dr. Duniya Mohamed Ali at the Medina hospital.

The Qatari delegates are involved in development projects in Mogadishu, Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.

Mohamud blamed al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab for the attack.

He said "suspects" have been arrested.

After the explosion soldiers fired in the air to disperse crowds that had gathered at the blast site at the busy KM4 junction.

Separately, four Somali soldiers were wounded Sunday when a roadside bomb struck a government vehicle in Deynile district, in Mogadishu's northwest, said Ali Jimale, a captain with the Somali police.

The Somali government reopened key roads in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, four days ago which had been closed for security reasons. The roads were closed after the government received intelligence that militants were planning attacks, officials said.

KM4 is among the busiest roads in Mogadishu, largely used by government officials and African Union forces. It connects the presidential compound and other government offices to the airport.

The car bombing falls into a pattern of attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has been pushed out of much of the areas it occupied in South and Central Somalia by African Union troops.

Condemning Sunday's attack, the U.N. representative to Somalia, Augustine P. Mahiga said cowardly and senseless acts of violence will not undermine the remarkable progress Somalia has made in the past months.

"Attacks against civilians are never justifiable. I call on all parties to renounce violence and contribute positively to peace and stability," he said.

The British government condemned the attack through its Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds.

He said incidents such as these demonstrate the importance of the Federal Government of Somalia and international partners working together to combat violent extremism in Somalia.

Next week's Somalia Conference in London, co-hosted by the British and the Federal Government of Somalia will provide international support to help build Somali capacity to increase peace and stability, said Simmonds.

Al-Shabab once controlled almost all of Mogadishu. African Union and Somali forces pushed the radical rebels out of the city in 2011, but the fighters have continued to carry out bomb attacks.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Somali's Supreme Court last month that killed 35, including nine attackers.

Somalia's prime minister said that several experienced foreign fighters took part in attack on the Supreme Court, the most serious Islamic extremist attack on Mogadishu in years, while other officials indicated the explosive devices were more advanced than normal, a possible indication of greater involvement by al-Qaida.The attack included six suicide bombings and two car bombs.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, including some from the Middle East with experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Al-Shabab also recruits fighters from Somali communities in the United States and Europe.

In March, an explosives-filled car targeting a truck of government officials hit a civilian car and exploded, setting a mini-bus on fire and killing at least seven.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Siad Barre and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos.

President Mohamud was elected by parliament in October at the end of the eight-year U.N.-backed transitional government.

The U.N.-backed political process that resulted in Mohamud's election was condemned by Islamist militants who said it was manipulated by the West. But Mohamud has the support of the international community, which wants him to succeed and bring stability to the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

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Associated Press Writer Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report from London.

Verlander (3-2) allowed a run and five hits. He struck out eight and walked two.

Vance Worley (0-4) gave up six runs and 10 hits in 4 2-3 innings. Worley was acquired by the Twins in an offseason trade with Philadelphia and started Minnesota's season opener, but the right-hander has a 7.22 ERA.

Cabrera opened the scoring with his fourth homer of the year, and Fielder's seventh was part of a three-run fifth. Alex Avila also went deep for Detroit.

Tigers pitchers struck out 10 reaching that mark for the fifth straight game. That equals the longest streak by an American League team since at least 1921. The major league record since then is eight games by the Milwaukee Brewers last August, according to STATS.

Cabrera's second opposite-field homer in three nights put Detroit ahead 2-0.

Wilkin Ramirez hit an RBI double for Minnesota in the second, but Avila answered in the bottom half. The Detroit catcher entered the game hitting .176, but sliced a drive over the fence in left-center to make it 3-1.

Worley appeared to be in decent shape until the fifth, when Torii Hunter hit an RBI groundout to make it 4-1. Fielder followed one out later with a line drive that cleared the wall in right in a hurry.

Verlander left his previous start against Kansas City after seven innings with a blister on his pitching thumb, but the injury wasn't expected to be too serious. He didn't seem bothered Tuesday, throwing 114 pitches.

Drew Smyly took over in the eighth and struck out one hitter. Al Alburquerque came on in the ninth but walked two, prompting manager Jim Leyland to bring in Joaquin Benoit for the final two outs in what was still a non-save situation. Benoit fanned pinch-hitter Ryan Doumit for the second out of the ninth and Detroit's 10th strikeout of the game.

NOTES: Minnesota star Joe Mauer snapped an 0-for-21 skid with a third-inning single. ... Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a big Tigers fan, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. He spent some time before the game commiserating with Hunter and Smyly, who are both from Arkansas. ... The Tigers try for a three-game sweep Wednesday. Detroit's Anibal Sanchez (3-1) takes the mound against Scott Diamond (1-2).

The 55-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party was detained on Saturday over attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire, northern England between July 2009 and March of this year, police said.

After being granted bail, Evans told reporters: "Yesterday I was interviewed by the police concerning two complaints - one of which dates back four years - made by two people who are well known to each other and who until yesterday I had regarded as friends.

"The complaints are completely false and I cannot understand why they have been made, especially as I have continued to socialise with one as recently as last week."

No further details of the complainants have been released by Lancashire police.

Evans, who has been a MP for some 20 years, was elected as one of three deputy speakers three years ago.

The role mainly involves adjudicating the often noisy and fractious debates between Britain's rival parties who face each other across the floor of the Commons.

Evans, who announced to a newspaper in 2010 that he was gay, was vice-chairman of the Conservative party from 1999 to 2001 and shadow Welsh Secretary for two years after that while the Conservatives were in opposition.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

The Bedford competition called for agility demonstrations in which the gerbils must overcome obstacles and race to the end of a course. Breeders of the small animals vie for coveted ribbons based on body type and agility.

"A male gerbil should be a good, strong, hefty-looking gerbil," said Libby Hanna, president of the American Gerbil Society. "If you are going to think of it in human terms, you might think of a football player somebody who's big, thick neck, nice, strong-looking male gerbil."

An ideal female gerbil will have a more streamlined appearance that even humans covet, she said.

"So she would be strong and athletic-looking not really scrawny, but slim," said Hanna, who serves as a judge in the show. "I usually use a figure skater as my mental image or gymnasts so obviously a gymnast is not necessarily a big, big woman, but she's gonna be strong, muscular and athletic."

The Friday-Saturday show drew gerbil enthusiasts and breeders from around the country and culminates in the presentation of champion and breeder certificates.

Fourteen-year-old Sarah Kaden from Bordentown, N.J., thinks gerbils have great personalities.

"Even though they are so little, they are very different from each other and they smell a lot less than my brother's hamsters," she said Friday.

That sentiment is not surprising since the small, furry and inquisitive creatures look cute when they nibble on their food, stand on their hind feet or scurry around their environment.

Gerbils are perfect pets for modern families as they don't require to be taken out for a walk, could easily fit in a small apartment and their tanks only need to be cleaned about once a week.

Still, some people freak out when they visit friends and see gerbils in the home.

"I've had a couple of people come to my house that actually didn't know that I had gerbils. They were sort of freaked out, but I just told them that it was OK, they stay in their tanks, there was nothing to worry about," said Diane Nott who traveled from Elyria, Ohio, to compete in the show.

Gerbils thrive in desert habitats and their growing popularity as pets led authorities in California and Hawaii to make it illegal to keep them since the weather there would make it possible for escaping animals to flourish in wild colonies that would damage crops and native plants.

At the New England show, each animal undergoes a health check. Inspectors look at the whiskers, teeth and mouths and check to ensure the rodents have no runny noses, bugs, loss of fur on their tails or other signs of health problems.

Donna Anastasi of Waltham got hooked on gerbils after buying them for her daughters when they were younger.

"Anyone can buy a $12 gerbil and get into the sport of gerbil showing or gerbil agility," said Anastasi, who is also vice president of the American Gerbil Society. "It's very fun ... easy and affordable and something you can do with your kids."

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Rodrique Ngowi can be reached at www.twitter.com/ngowi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With signs of a slower economy mounting, the near-term outlook for U.S. stocks isn't rosy, but investors may find comfort next week from the world's major central banks.

The Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the report of weaker-than-expected, first-quarter growth could reinforce expectations the Fed will keep purchasing bonds at a pace of $85 billion a month.

Low interest rates and ample liquidity provided by the Fed and other central banks have buoyed global equity markets because low borrowing costs for businesses and consumers lead to richer corporate profits. Major U.S. stock indexes hit record highs earlier this month.

"As long as it looks like central banks are on your side and on investors' side as far as providing more liquidity, that's going to help improve sentiment," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

"I don't think (Fed officials) have got enough data since the last meeting to really justify changing policy. I really don't think they're going to look at slowing the pace of purchases until probably September."

A strong commitment from the Fed to continue its stimulative policy, coupled with corporate earnings that have mostly exceeded lowered forecasts, could help Wall Street extend a rally despite signs that the U.S. economic recovery is losing momentum.

Even though the market ended flat on Friday, its performance for the week was positive. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.7 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.1 percent and Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.3 percent

The economy expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said on Friday, short of expectations of 3.0 percent and setting a cautious tone.

A heavy slate of key economic indicators will be released next week, including personal income and spending, the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing and services activity indexes, pending home sales, the Chicago purchasing managers' index and consumer confidence from the Conference Board.

The highlight of the week will come on Friday when the Labor Department releases its employment report for April.

Economists polled by Reuters are looking for job growth of 150,000, up from 88,000 in March. The unemployment rate is likely to remain unchanged at 7.6 percent.

"Today's (GDP) data suggests maybe the momentum is much weaker that what was priced in," said John Praveen, chief investment strategist at Prudential International Investments Advisers in Newark, New Jersey.

"We have had a very strong rally, so people are looking for any trigger for profit-taking," he said. Praveen said the market could see a 5 percent pullback in the months ahead should upcoming data prove weaker than expected.

Stocks have had a wild run over the past week after hackers attacked the website of stock broker Charles Schwab Corpand a false report on the Associated Press's Twitter account about explosions at the White House sent the market into a brief tailspin.

On Thursday, a software glitch shut down the Chicago Board Options Exchange for half the day, preventing trading in options on two of the stock market's most closely watched indexes and delivering the latest blow to confidence in the way U.S. financial markets operate.

EUROPE, EARNINGS

The European Central Bank meets on Thursday and investors will watch to see if it delivers an interest-rate cut as the euro zone economy deteriorates further. Further monetary easing would encourage investors to buy riskier assets and boost stocks.

"The market has been rallying on the fact the ECB might actually start to do something; if the U.S. market reacts in the same way, that might get the market rallying," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston.

With earnings reporting now half over, investors will look to see if companies can continue to exceed profit estimates despite lackluster revenue.

According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 271 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings for the first quarter, 69 percent have beaten analysts' expectations, above the 63 percent average since 1994.

However, only 43.9 percent have topped analysts' revenue forecasts, well below the 62 percent average since 2002 and the 52 percent rate for the last four quarters.

Analysts now see earnings growth of 3.8 percent this quarter, up from expectations of 1.5 percent on April 1.

Next week Dow components reporting results will be Pfizerand Merck . Other companies scheduled to report include Loews Corp , Aetna Inc , Chesapeake Energy , Visa Inc , Viacom Incand Kraft Foods Group Inc .

David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, based in Boston where he helps oversee about $700 billion in assets, said the lackluster figures suggest the second quarter may not be as robust as hoped.

"Right now, markets are going through an adjustment process, trying to figure out just how robust the economy is here and overseas as well," Joy said. "You have investors sort of biding their time. They are invested, but not with complete conviction."

(Reporting By Wanfeng Zhou; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

The amendment fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass, failing 54-46. Only four Republicans voted for the amendment: Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine, and Toomey.But Manchin and Toomey were hoping to have more Republican allies, particularly since some of the last holdouts hail from swing states or had previously entertained supporting the legislation. (Five Democrats voted against it: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid voted no for procedural reasons, but supports the amendment.)

Below are the five Republicans who represented the best chance for the Manchin-Toomey amendment to pass but voted against itand why.

KELLY AYOTTE

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)