Investing.com – Wall Street settled mixed Thursday as gains in energy were offset by weakness is tech as investors awaited a deluge of earnings from large cap technology companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 26,153.32. The S&P 500 closed 0.06% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 7385.86, down 0.35%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon, Alphabet are slated to reveal earnings after US markets closed with the latter the only stock ending the session in positive territory as some investors appeared to have taken profits off the table ahead of earnings.
Apple is widely expected to miss earnings and revenue estimates amid expectations for slower sales growth of its flagship iPhone X as its hefty price was mentioned as one of the potential headings to consumer adoption.
Sentiment on earnings overall were mostly bullish, however, as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Paypal beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines, but the latter fell more than 5% following eBay’s announcement that it would ditch its long-term partnership Paypal.
Some noted, however, that eBay represented just 13% of PayPal’s total payment volume, according to company files.
Offsetting weakness in markets somewhat was strong performance in energy and financials amid the ongoing rally in crude prices and prospect of a more hawkish Federal Reserve on monetary policy, respectively.
On the economic front, meanwhile, traders digested mostly bullish ISM manufacturing data.
The December ISM manufacturing PMI was reported at 59.1, beating economists’ forecasts for a reading of 58.8, new orders in December fell to reading of a 65.4 compared with 67.4 a month ago. ISM prices paid index, meanwhile, was reported at a 72.7 beating expectations for a reading of 68.8.
Wells Fargo said that the ISM data showed backlogged orders and supplier delivery times grew during the month, suggesting recent momentum should continue in the near-term.
Amazon reported earnings that beat on both the top and bottom line, while Alphabet missed earnings per share estimates but beat revenue estimates. Alphabet reported earnings of $9.70 per share on revenue of $32.32 billion compared with analysts' estimates for earnings of $9.70 per share on $31.86 billion on revenue.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) rose 2%, Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) up 1.7%, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) up 1.6%
DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) down 2.8%, 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) down 1.1%, and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) down 1%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.