Late burst of buying on Wall Street leaves indexes mixed

U.S. stock indexes stemmed an early slide Friday, finishing mostly higher and nudging the benchmark S&P 500 index to its second weekly gain in a row.

Gains in technology and consumer goods companies outweighed losses in financial stocks and retailers as investors continued to size up the latest batch of quarterly corporate snapshots.

Prior to a late-afternoon flurry of buying, the market had been on pace to finish lower as investors hit pause following a tumultuous two months where the index followed up its worst December since 1931 with its best January in three decades.

The S&P 500 rose 1.83 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,707.88. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 63.20 points, or 0.3 percent, to 25,106.33.

The Nasdaq composite added 9.85 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,298.20. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 0.77 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,506.39. Major stock indexes in Europe finished lower.

Traders have been worried about predicted slowdowns in economies around the world, with trade tensions between the United States and China adding to the strain. Warnings about slower growth from Europe and the United Kingdom earlier this week hit hard, helping to derail a five-day winning streak for the S&P 500.

It hasn’t been all bad news, however. Companies have been reporting better-than-expected earnings for the last three months of 2018, and the Federal Reserve has indicated it will take a more patient approach to raising interest rates. Still, concerns are building about whether profits can keep growing this year, especially after companies’ strong gains in 2018 following a sweeping corporate tax cut.

Across the S&P 500, analysts are forecasting earnings per share to drop 1.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. They were calling for growth just a few weeks ago, and if the updated forecasts prove true, it will be the first decline in nearly three years. Looking beyond the first quarter, earnings growth by S&P 500 companies is expected to grow 5 percent for all of 2019.

Financial stocks took some of the heaviest losses and were hurt by a drop in interest rates, which can limit the profits they make from lending money.

Treasury yields fell as investors continued to seek out safer areas of the market given all the economic and profit concerns. Treasury yields fall when prices for the bonds rise.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 2.63 percent from 2.65 percent late Thursday. It had been above 3 percent as recently as December.

Traders continued to weigh a mixed batch of company earnings reports Friday.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber plunged 9.1 percent, posting the biggest loss in the S&P 500 index, after reporting weaker-than-expected profit for the latest quarter. The company cited some weakness in China, which has been a big source of concern for investors recently.

The world’s second-largest economy is in the midst of a sharp economic slowdown, and it’s a huge market for many big U.S. companies.

Unless American and Chinese negotiators come to a new agreement, the U.S. is expected to raise import taxes from 10 percent to 25 percent for $200 billion in Chinese goods. The trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, which has cooled in recent months, has weighed on the outlook of businesses and the global economy.