U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday as investors assessed an array of generally negative quarterly earnings reports from notable companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.23 points, or 0.12 percent, to 18,003.75. The S&P 500 edged down 0.10 point, or less than 0.01 percent, to 2,091.58.
The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 39.66 points, or 0.80 percent, to 4,906.23.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq underperformed the other two indices as a batch of tech giants suffered big losses following the releases of their lackluster quarterly results. After Thursday's closing bell, Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported first quarter 2016 earnings of 4.21 billion U.S. dollars on revenues of 20.26 billion dollars, compared with earnings of 3.52 billion dollars on revenues of 17.26 billion dollars a year ago. Alphabet Class A, however, tumbled 5.41 percent to 737.77 U.S. dollars apiece Friday as both the earnings and revenues missed Wall Street estimates.
Shares of Microsoft plunged 7.17 percent to 51.78 dollars apiece Friday after the tech giant reported quarterly results that were also well below market consensus. In response, technology sector, the biggest laggard among the S &P 500's ten sectors, slid 1.90 percent Friday.
On other earnings report, shares of McDonald's edged down 0.23 percent to 125.50 dollars apiece Friday following the release of the world's biggest restaurant chain's better-than-expected quarterly results.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2016 are expected to decrease 7.1 percent year on year, while the revenue is forecast to decline 1.3 percent.
On the economic front, the seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 50.8 in April, missing market consensus of 52.0.
For the week, the Dow added 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 increased 0.5 percent, while the Nasdaq fell 0.6 percent.
Latest comments