Major US stock indices ended with fractional gains on Friday following mixed earnings results as investors assessed how conflicting economic data might influence interest rates and looked ahead to a massive week of corporate reports.
A survey showed that US business activity accelerated to an 11-month high this month, further clouding the outlook for the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy after data earlier in the week indicated a weakening economy.
Procter & Gamble Co’s shares rose 3.5 percent as customers kept buying despite repeated price hikes, helping the maker of products raging from Tide detergent to Head & Shoulders shampoo boost its sales forecast and third-quarter margins.
The benchmark S&P 500 has been generally stable over early stages of a first-quarter earnings season that investors expect to show tepid results. A flood of reports are scheduled to be released next week, including from megacap tech and growth companies whose shares have helped the S&P 500 rally to start the year.
“The market has been basically in a bit of a holding pattern ahead of big tech earnings next week,” Truist Advisory Services cochief investment officer Keith Lerner said. “There is a tug of war between good and bad economic data, good and bad earnings data.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.34 points, or 0.07 percent, to 33,808.96, the S&P 500 gained 3.73 points, or 0.09 percent, to 4,133.52 and the NASDAQ Composite added 12.9 points, or 0.11 percent, to 12,072.46.
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For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.1 percent, the Dow declined 0.23 percent and the NASDAQ lost 0.42 percent.
Results next week are due from some of the highest-valued US companies including Microsoft Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Amazon shares rose 3 percent on Friday after a research firm predicted the online retailer’s business in North America would beat Wall Street’s estimates.
The materials group fell 0.9 percent, most among S&P 500 sectors, weighed down by declines in Freeport-McMoRan Inc and Albemarle Corp. Albemarle slumped 10 percent after Chile unveiled plans to nationalize the lithium industry. Shares of Freeport dropped 4.1 percent after the copper miner’s first-quarter profit more than halved.
So far, analysts have largely retained last week’s expectations of a near-5 percent year-on-year fall in quarterly profits at S&P 500 companies, Refinitiv data showed.
“The unpredictability of earnings and revenue and guidance going forward has increased a lot,” Chase Investment Counsel president Peter Tuz said. “You have signs that the economy is softening all over the place.”
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.24-to-1 ratio; on the NASDAQ, a 1.10-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the NASDAQ Composite recorded 53 new highs and 186 new lows.
About 9.9 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, compared with the 10.4 billion daily average over the past 20 sessions.
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