Earnings News: Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Google Inc. (GOOG) [VIDEO]

Wall Street opened lower on Thursday, despite the U.S. Senate reaching a last-minute deal to lift the country's borrowing limit, as investors focused on weak corporate earnings reports.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) reported a fiscal third-quarter profit of $1.43 billion, or $2.88 per share, compared with earnings of $1.46 billion, or $2.85 per share, in the year-ago period. EPS beat the average analyst estimate of $2.43, according to Reuters. Revenue fell 44 percent to $1.25 billion.

“The third-quarter’s results reflected a period of slow client activity,” said Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer. “Still, we saw various signs that our clients are prepared to act on significant transactions, and we believe that the firm is well positioned to help our clients accomplish their objectives. As longer-term U.S. budget issues are resolved, we could see an improvement in corporate and investor sentiment that would help lay the basis for a more sustained recovery.”

On Thursday, shares of Goldman Sachs fell 2.29 percent to $158.54 in morning trading.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported a fiscal third-quarter profit of $2.2 billion, or 78 cents per share, compared with $1.59 billion, or 56 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding items, Verizon earned 77 cents per share in the quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of 74 cents, according to Reuters.

Revenue rose 4.4 to $30.28 billion, from $29.01 billion, compared with Wall Street expectations of $30.16 billion, according to Reuters.

"These strong third-quarter results reflect Verizon’s long-term investment in reliable, high-quality networks to deliver value to customers,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO. “Our unwavering focus on wireless, FiOS and strategic enterprise services has produced consistent performance, and we’ve delivered double-digit earnings growth in six of the past seven quarters. Verizon’s strategic networks form a powerful distribution platform for future growth and innovation."

Shares of Verizon rose 3.33 percent to $48.83 on Thursday.

After the closing bell on Thursday, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to report fiscal third-quarter EPS of $8.46 on revenue of $14.84 billion, compared with a profit of $6.53 a share on revenue of $11.33 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to analysts polled by Reuters.

On Thursday, shares of Google edged down 0.82 percent to $890.70 in morning trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 77.26 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,296.57. The S&P 500 Index lost 0.61 points, or 0.04 percent, to 1,720.95. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.40 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,836.88.