Wall Street flat as earnings offset inflation jitters
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street closed nearly flat on Friday as inflation worries and struggling technology and energy stocks were offset by an advance in the consumer discretionary sector led by Amazon.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq eked out small gains while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged into negative territory by the end of the session.
All three major US indexes were down for the week at the end of a choppy session, ending two-week winning streaks.
“There’s a ton of cross-currents going on in the market right now and consequently you get trading days like this where the market can’t seem to make up its mind what it wants to do,” said Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
Growth in the US economy slowed in the first quarter as consumer spending grew at its weakest pace in nearly five years, according to the Commerce Department. But a jump in wages and lower tax rates suggested the setback could be temporary.
The US Treasuries yield curve flattened as the growth data renewed bets that the Federal Reserve would continue hiking benchmark US interest rates to keep inflation in check.
Wages and salaries increased at their fastest pace in 11 years, according to a report from the Labor Department, adding to inflation jitters.
As companies warn of higher costs eroding margins, markets have fluctuated as investors focus on guidance in the face of the strongest quarterly profit growth in seven years.
“You’ve got investors grappling with a new environment of volatility and how to handle that,” said Carlson. “That means a market like we have now, kind of manic-depressive, passive-aggressive.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.15 points, or 0.05%, to 24,311.19, the S&P 500 gained 2.97 points, or 0.11%, to 2,669.91 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.12 points, or 0.02%, to 7,119.80.
More than half of the S&P 500 companies have reported first-quarter earnings already, 79.4% of which have beat consensus estimates. Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings growth of 24.6%, more than double expectations at the beginning of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Amazon.com led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, helping them close in positive territory as the online retailer’s shares rose 3.6% on the heels of a blockbuster earnings report. Brokerage firms have begun to value the company in excess of $1 trillion.
Microsoft was up 1.7% as the technology bellwether beat first-quarter expectations and grew its cloud computing services.
Following a profit miss, Exxon Mobil weighed on the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, falling 3.8%.
Sprint jumped 8.3% following a Reuters report that the wireless carrier and rival T-Mobile were finalizing terms of a merger.
Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the defensive telecom and real estate sectors posting the biggest percentage gains, at 1.75% and 1.32%, respectively.
The Exxon drop pulled the energy index down 1.2%, the biggest percentage loser.
The Bank of Israel on Friday set its representative rate for the US dollar at NIS 3.5970, for the Australian dollar at NIS 2.7134, and for the South African rand at NIS 0.2903.
The central bank set the representative rate for the euro at NIS 4.3432, and for 100 yen at NIS 3.2896.