Late slide erases gains for indexes

Wall Street closed out a choppy week of trading with more of the same Friday, as a late-afternoon stumble led U.S. stock indexes to a mixed finish.

The S&P 500 ended the day just a fraction of a point higher after a burst of selling erased a 0.9 percent gain. Despite a three-day stretch of losses, the benchmark index still managed to finish higher for the week, its third straight weekly gain.

Big Tech and energy companies fell while health care and industrial stocks rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also eked out a gain, while the Nasdaq composite posted its fourth straight loss. Treasury yields were flat.

The market had been up for much of the day after the government reported that retail sales rose in September for the fifth straight month. That report appeared to overshadow new data showed U.S. industrial production had its weakest showing last month since the spring.

The market’s late-day fade capped a week of volatility for stocks as companies began reporting their third-quarter results and traders’ hopes for a new round of economic stimulus from Washington dimmed.

“The market is sort of bouncing around here,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “We’ve had a lot of noise lately and that’s probably what we’re going to have over the next couple of weeks.”

The S&P 500 rose 0.47 points to 3,483.81. The Dow gained 112.11 points, or 0.4 percent, to 28,606.31. At one point, it had been up by 348 points. The Nasdaq fell 42.32 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,671.56. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks dropped 5.08 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,633.81.