Investing.com – Wall Street traded mixed on Friday with GE earnings putting downward pressure on the Dow as investors priced in another wave of earnings reports and digested positive data on U.S. manufacturing activity, but turned their attention to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) policy decision next week.
At 15:06GMT, or 11:06AM ET, the Dow 30 slipped 3 points, or 0.02%, the S&P 500 edged forward 3 points, or 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 13 points, or 0.26%.
As U.S. companies continued to roll out quarterly numbers, earnings were turning out better than expected. 67% of the 103 S&P 500 companies that had reported through Thursday had beaten estimates, better than the average 63%, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Analysts had also rolled back the damage expected in the second quarter with expectations for S&P 500 companies’ earnings to decline 3.3% in the quarter, less than the 4.7% seen prior to reporting season.
On Friday, General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the lead decliner on the blue-chip index with losses of more than 2% despite beating consensus. Experts pointed to a 2% decline in orders and a volatile slow-growth economy.
Also on the Dow, Visa Inc (NYSE:V) was trading flat after reporting mixed quarterly numbers.
In other major moves on earnings, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) and Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) soared 6% and 4%, respectively, while, on the downside, Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON) slumped 4%.
On the macro front, Markit’s preliminary manufacturing PMI hit a nine-month high in July.
That was Friday’s only major economic report and the dollar continued to hover close to four-month highs against the other major currencies on Friday, while investors turned their attention to next week’s monetary policy decision.
Though no changes to interest rates are expected, market participants will eye the wording of the Fed statement to determine if there has been a shift to a more hawkish message.
Markets were pricing in only a 47.2% chance of a rate hike at the December meeting.
In oil markets, crude futures were on track to register weekly losses of near 3% as investors continued to worry about oversupply and looked ahead to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes’ data later in the day that will gauge the ongoing recovery in U.S. drilling activity.
The prior release last Friday showed that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. increased by six last week to 357, the third straight weekly rise and the sixth increase in seven weeks.
The renewed gain in U.S. drilling activity fueled speculation that domestic production could be on the verge of rebounding in the weeks ahead, underlining worries over a supply glut.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.36 % to $44.14 a barrel by 15:08GMT or 11:08AM ET, while Brent oil lost 1.32% to $45.59.