U.S. Stocks End Friday Flat, But Up On The Week

Stocks closed mixed, with a late rally lifting blue-chips to a small gain while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished little changed. Stocks labored much of the day after a government report found the U.S. economy did not grow as quickly as expected in Q1 while another survey showed a drop in consumer confidence this month. Most industry sectors also finished little changed, although metal and materials stocks tumbled hard as prices for raw goods fell on demand worries triggered by today's gross domestic product figures. Shares of financial companies also declined.

Early Tick Down
The markets began drifting lower soon after the Commerce Department reported U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, rebounding from a 0.4% rise in Q4 but still lagging expert opinion looking for 3.0% growth in the quarter.

Outside of government spending, most sectors of the U.S. economy expanded during the first three months of 2013, including a 3.2% year over year increase in consumer spending. But economists cautioned much of that growth came at the expense of savings, increasing the likelihood of future slowdowns. Part of the pick-up in activity also reflected farmers' filling up silos after last summer's drought. If inventories are removed, GDP growth for the quarter was just 1.5%.

U.S. Consumer Sentiment
A separate report also weighed on stocks, with the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index on consumer sentiment sliding to a final 76.4 reading for April, down from last month's 78.6 mark. The April reading was a three-month low, reflecting less optimism for the U.S. economy, although the 2.4-point slide was not as large as the 5.1-point decline experts in a Bloomberg survey had been expecting.

Commodities ended mostly lower, although gold traded higher most of the session on dollar weakness following the Q1 GDP report. Crude oil for June delivery settled 64 cents lower at $93.00 per barrel. May natural gas was down 2 cents to $4.15 per 1 million BTU. June gold reversed course late, ending $8.20 lower at $1,453.60 per ounce while May silver slipped 38 cents to finish at $23.76 per ounce. May copper was down 5 cents to $3.19 per pound.

Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End

• Dow Jones Industrial Average up 11.75 (+0.08%) to 14,712.55
• S&P 500 down 2.92 (-0.18%) to 1,582.24
• Nasdaq Composite Index down 10.73 (-0.33%) to 3,279.26

• Hang Seng Index up 0.65%
• Shanghai China Composite Index down 0.97%
• FTSE 100 Index down 16.17 (-0.25%) to 6,426.42

• (+) LOGM, Reports non-GAAP Q1 net income of $0.12 per share, topping analyst forecasts by $0.02 per share. Revenue increased 15% year over year to $37.4 mln, also exceeding the consensus view by $1.09 mln.
• (+) SYNA, Breezes past analyst forecasts with fiscal Q3 earnings of $0.79 per share, $0.22 better than the Street view. Revenue climbs 24% to $163.3 mln, topping the analyst consensus by $17.7 mln. For Q4, it is forecasting $190 mln to $205 mln in revenue, or at least $32 mln above expectations.
• (+) THRX, Splitting into two independent, publicly traded companies. The first firm will focus on commercial development of its LABA drug treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other potential royalty streams. The other firm will concentrate on small-molecule medicines to treat unmet medical needs.

• (-) HXM, Q1 earnings falls to 95.265 pesos, or $7.7 mln, from $60.06 mln in the year-earlier quarter. EPS declined to $0.14 from $0.72 last year and missing expectations by $0.23 per share. Revenue tumbled 46.2% from year-ago levels to $274.2 mln, trailing analyst forecasts by $111 mln.
• (-) KEG, Reports Q1 earnings of $0.01 per share, $0.02 worse than the analyst consensus. Revenue declined 12% year over year to $428.4 mln, also trailing estimates by around $15.43 mln. Begins "significant" restructuring of its Fluid Management Services business while also reducing rig count in Mexico by roughly half of Q1 levels.
• (-) PKI, Adjusted Q1 earnings falls by $0.07 from year-ago levels to $0.36 per share, lagging Wall Street expectations by $0.12. Revenue slips 1% year over year, also missing projections. Forecasts FY13 EPS of $2.00 to $2.10 per share, or at least $0.17 below the analyst consensus.