US stocks have finished flat under the shadow of earnings disappointments but tempered by a slightly better-than-expected estimate of economic growth in the third quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 3.53 points (0.03 per cent) at 13,107.21 on Friday.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost 1.03 (0.07 per cent) at 1,411.94, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.83 (0.06 per cent) to 2,987.95.
The first government estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product growth came in at 2.0 per cent, a healthy rebound from 1.3 per cent in the prior quarter but still too slow to build much optimism.
IHS Global Insight US economists Nigel Gault and Paul Edelstein said the low-gear economy would remain a drag on profits.
“We don’t think that growth is accelerating. In fact, the details confirm our view that the economy will further experience modest but subpar growth,” they said in an analysis.
Earnings set the pace of the markets, with Apple losing 0.9 per cent after missing expectations in its quarterly report, while Amazon bounced 6.9 per cent higher despite its loss and cautious outlook for the holiday shopping season.
Banks were mostly lower: Citigroup fell 2.2 per cent, Bank of America 1.3 per cent and JPMorgan Chase, with Bank of America now reportedly in a new group of banks that have been subpoenaed in the investigation over rigging the Libor benchmark interest rate.
Netflix recovered 13.1 per cent two days after investors dumped the shares on reports that Apple would push ahead with its own streaming video service. Some fresh rumours circulated over Microsoft’s interest in the company.
Arch Coal, which reported a strong third quarter on cost cutting and forecast a rebound in coal prices, jumped 10.7 per cent.
Cable operator Comcast added 3.3 per cent as it topped earnings forecasts and spoke of strong momentum in all parts of the business.
Merck fell 0.3 per cent on its report of slower sales than expected, though it turned in a 22 per cent rise in profits, and 95 cents earnings per share which beat forecasts by three cents.
Bond prices pushed higher. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 1.75 per cent from 1.83 per cent late Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.92 per cent from 2.98 per cent.
Bond prices move inversely to yields.
