Oil climbs as indexes conclude the week up

Phone companies proved the biggest drag, as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile fall on Time Warner news.

The major U.S. stock indexes closed mostly lower Friday, capping a day spent wavering between small gains and losses.

Phone companies were the biggest drag on the market following reports that AT&T was considering a deal to acquire the media conglomerate Time Warner. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile US all fell.

Health care and energy stocks also took some losses, while consumer staples and technology companies held on to slight gains.

Investors continued to focus on corporate America, reviewing earnings from General Electric, McDonald’s and other big companies. Earnings from banks and other financial companies have been mostly better than anticipated, which has helped boost that sector.

“We’re seeing a lot better earnings come out of the financial sector in particular, and some good earnings come out of technology,” said David Schiegoleit, managing director of investments at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank. “That is reflected in some of the sector performance, but when you look at the market overall we’re still being weighed down by energy.”

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 16.64 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,145.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 0.18 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,141.16. The Nasdaq composite index gained 15.57 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,257.40.

The three indexes ended slightly higher for the week. The Dow is now up 4.1 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 is up 4.8 percent. The Nasdaq is up 5 percent.

Roughly two weeks into the third-quarter financial reporting period, earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are projected be down about 0.8 percent overall from a year ago, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. That forecast is largely due to the energy sector, which has been hard hit by falling energy prices.

AT&T fell 3 percent following reports that the company was considering a deal to acquire the media conglomerate Time Warner. AT&T slid $1.16 to $37.49.

Beyond earnings, concerns about the implications of a rising dollar and a possible interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year have kept the market in a listless state recently, noted Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at OppenheimerFunds.

“The market is not taking a significant turn in a negative way, but it doesn’t really see any positive impetus in the near term to go higher,” Memani said.

After an early slide, crude oil prices recovered in afternoon trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 22 cents to close at $50.85 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 40 cents to close at $51.78 a barrel in London.