Wall Street closes little changed amid mixed earnings reports
Major equity indexes in the U.S. failed to make decisive movements in either direction on Friday and closed the day not too far away from their opening levels.
Relatively weak earning reports from high profile companies such as Exxon, and Starbucks weighed on the S&P 500 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, led by Chevron's solid gains, closed the day higher. "Chevron on Friday reported quarterly profits and revenues that beat Wall Street's expectations as the company cut costs and as oil and gas prices and refining margins improved," said CNBC. On the other hand, after announcing worse-than-expected revenue results after the closing bell on Thursday, Amazon shares lost more than 2% and dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lower.
"More than halfway through reporting season, S&P 500 companies are on track to have increased earnings by 10.8 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S," Reuters said on Friday. Commenting on today's market action, Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, "there’s a tendency after you have had too long a string of wins, to start looking for the problems in even the good data. And I get the sense that that is kind of what is going on in the market at this point,” told Reuters.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 33.75 points, or 0.15%, to 21,830.17, the S&P 500 dropped 2.25 points, or 0.09%, to 2,470.00 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 7.5 points, or 0.12%, to 6,374.68.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- US NFP preview: Looking for 195K in July - Wells Fargo
- US Dollar Index consolidates losses, headed to lowest weekly close in 14 months
- Fed's Kashkari: Need to address low-inflation issue with interest-rate policy
- Japan: North Korean ICBM missile reached an altitude of about 3,000 km - Kyodo/NHK
- What has changed in EM - BBH
- NY Fed: GDP Nowcast stands at 1.9% for Q3 of 2017
- US: Tax cuts still possible despite failure to repeal Obamacare - Wells Fargo
- North Korea reportedly fires a missile - Kyodo
- Oil: WTI hits 8-week highs near $50
- US GDP: Back to trend - Wells Fargo