Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed mostly higher on Friday, shrugging off a slump in shares of Amazon after the e-commerce giant posted much weaker-than-expected quarterly profit.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) closed 2.48% lower on Friday, on the back of quarterly results that undershot market expectations, as second quarter earnings of 40 cents per share missed Wall Street estimates of earnings of $1.42 per share while net income fell 77% for the quarter.
The slump in shares of Amazon came a day after the tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated from highs, as investors took profits from the recent rally in tech stocks.
Meanwhile, economic data had little impact on stocks as the latest gross domestic product data showed a downward revision in first-quarter GDP while second-quarter GDP was in line with expectations.
U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.6% in the second quarter, meeting expectations, while first quarter GDP was revised down to 1.2%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Friday.
The data also revealed a slowdown in the annual pace of inflation, as the U.S. GDP price index, the broadest inflationary indicator, dipped more-than-expected to 1%, fuelling expectations that the Federal Reserve would keep rates low for longer than initially expected.
An uptick in energy, however, lifted sentiment as crude futures bagged their biggest weekly gain since December.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for September delivery rose 67 cents to settle at $49.71 a barrel.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 21,830.31. The S&P 500 closed 0.13% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6374.68, down 0.12%.
‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) up 1.9%, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) up 1.2% and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) up 1.1%
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) down 1.5%, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) down 1% and E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD), down 0.7%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.