Wall Street Edges Up, Indices Post Losses for Week
US stocks managed to score modest gains on Friday, but the S&P 500 posted its biggest weekly drop since April as investors showed only mild enthusiasm after getting their first glimpses of earnings.
Shares in Wells Fargo & Co, which fell 0.6 per cent to $51.49, were in the spotlight as the biggest US mortgage lender was the first major US bank to report earnings.
Wells Fargo's results will be followed next week by earnings from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
Next week's flurry of earnings will include reports from Google and Intel.
"This market is predicated on economic data, but above all else, it's on what companies are telling us," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, based in Newark, New Jersey.
"We need to hear from companies to give credence to whether or not the economy is gaining momentum versus losing traction."
Internet names ranked among the day's biggest gainers, with shares of Amazon.com Inc up 5.6 per cent at $346.20, and eBay Inc up 2.3 per cent at $51.50.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.74 points, or 0.17 per cent, to end at 16,943.81.
The S&P 500 gained 2.89 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 1,967.57.
The Nasdaq Composite added 19.29 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 4,415.49.
For the week, the Dow ended down 0.7 per cent, the S&P 500 slid 0.9 per cent and the Nasdaq tumbled 1.6 per cent.
A sharp drop in oil prices slammed energy shares, with U.S. crude futures settling down more than $2 a barrel. Shares in Exxon Mobil were down 0.8 per cent at $101.74 and were the biggest drag on the S&P 500.Chevron, down 1.4 per cent at $128.47, was the Dow's biggest percentage decliner.
A bright spot was provided by Whirlpool Corp. The stock rose 1.1 per cent to $140.76 after the US manufacturer of washers, dryers and other major home appliances agreed to buy a 60 per cent stake in its smaller Italian rival Indesit Company SpA for about $1 billion.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,657 to 1,358, for a 1.2-to-1 ratio on the upside. On the Nasdaq, advancers were about even with decliners.
About 4.9 billion shares traded on US exchanges, below the 5.4 billion average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.
Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2014