Strong first quarter for stocks ends on down day

Wall Street closed out a solid quarter Friday with a day of listless trading that ended on a soft note.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index notched its best three-month stretch since the fourth quarter of 2015. The Nasdaq composite turned in its best quarter since the end of 2013.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down slightly, with financials companies posting the biggest decline. Real estate companies led the gainers.

Trading was largely subdued, suggesting portfolio managers looking to bolster their end-of-quarter performance had made their moves earlier in the week, said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial.

“The market has performed very well,” she said.

The Dow slid 65.27 points, or 0.3 percent, to 20,663.22. The S&P 500 lost 5.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,362.72. The Nasdaq fell 2.60 points to 5,911.74. The index hit an all-time high on Thursday.

Small-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index picked up 3.58 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,385.92. Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bond prices edged higher. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.39 percent from 2.42 percent late Thursday.

The major stock indexes got off to a downbeat start Friday and spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses as investors weighed several corporate deals and new economic data on consumer spending and inflation.

The Commerce Department said consumer spending kept rising in February, though gains in the last two months have been slow. Meanwhile, an inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve increased 2.1 percent in February compared to a year ago, a fiveyear high.

The latest economic data followed positive reports on consumer confidence, housing and economic growth earlier this week, which have added to the market’s expectation for stronger first-quarter corporate earnings.

“The market is moving ahead into the second quarter with valuations that are high, but the expecta-