Stronger-than-expected results from General Electric and the oil-field services company Schlumberger helped the S. P. 500 offset losses in the technology sector and post a fourth week of gains.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.5 percent, the S. P. added 0.7 percent, and the Nasdaq fell 0.3 percent. The S. P. is up 18.6 percent for the year.
On Friday, Microsoft was the biggest drag on all three major indexes, its stock slumping 11.4 percent to $31.40, with the Nasdaq registering the day’s steepest declines. Google, which lost 1.5 percent to $896.60, also weighed on the S. P. 500 and Nasdaq. Both companies reported earnings that fell short of expectations.
Technology “may be the one area where companies haven’t gotten expectations sufficiently reduced,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management in Chicago. “Stocks like Microsoft and Google I think were probably at the point where they had traded so nicely into earnings that people were really looking for something positive to be said.”
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 4.80 points, or 0.03 percent, on Friday to close at 15,543.74. The S. P. 500 was up 2.72 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,692.09. The Nasdaq fell 23.66 points, or 0.66 percent, at 3,587.61.
Analysts’ estimates for corporate earnings have been reduced so much that investors say they believe the targets for the most part should be beaten easily. Through Friday, of the 104 companies in the S. P. 500 that had reported quarterly earnings, 65.4 percent reported earnings above expectations, while 51 percent topped revenue estimates, according to Thomson Reuters.
Also in the tech sector, Advanced Micro Devices tumbled 13.2 percent to $4.03 after the company said gross margins would fall, even as it forecast stronger-than-expected revenue growth in the third quarter.
Encouraging earnings from other companies helped offset the tech losses. Shares of General Electric rose 4.6 percent to $24.72, while shares of Schlumberger gained 5.4 percent to $82.74.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 14/32 to 93 21/32, to yield 2.48 percent, down from 2.53 percent on Thursday.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 19, 2013
Because of an editing error, a headline on an earlier version of this article misstated the outcome of Friday’s Wall Street trading. The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index, a broad measure of the market, ended with a slight gain; it is not the case that markets closed lower.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss