Investing.com – The Dow snapped its five-day rally Friday as a slump in energy on falling oil prices offset strong gains in automakers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.02%, the S&P 500 lost 0.01%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.21%.
The relentless rise in oil prices came to halt, triggering a sea of red in energy stocks inflicting the first daily loss for the broader market in six days.
That offset strong gains in automakers amid an acceleration in shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM) after it delivered an upbeat outlook on future growth.
General Motors lifted its full-year 2018 earnings guidance, and touted more gains for 2019, sending its 7% higher.
Other auto stocks raced higher in the wake of GM's upbeat announcement.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F) rose 2.0%, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:FCAU) Automobiles gained 1.6%.
Tech, meanwhile, struggled to find its footing as weakness in Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) offset a surge in Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which followed a bullish note from analysts.
Netflix's shift toward a "vertically integrated streaming business," is accelerating, as the company reduces the level of licensing obligations to third parties and ramps up spending on original content, both of which should translate into a "deeper moat, greater operating leverage, and meaningful free cash flow," Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) said in a note to clients.
On the economic front, investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will adopt a slower pace of rate hikes this year were boosted as U.S. consumer prices dropped for the first time in nine-months.
"With little indication here that the acceleration in wage pressures or tariffs are causing any pickup in inflation, the Fed can take a pause in Q1 on raising rates to assess the health of growth indicators," CIBC said in a note to clients.
In other corporate news, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) slumped 9% after selling the rights to its Destiny franchise to developer Bungie – a move that could cost the company hundreds of millions in revenue, analysts warned.
KeyBanc slashed its 12-month price target on Activision's stock to $64 from $80, citing a short-term impact on the company's revenue and earnings following the termination of its relationship with Bungie.
The stumble in the broader market comes ahead of the start of the fourth-quarter earnings season, which gets underway in earnest next week with results from major Wall Street banks.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) are slated to report earnings on Tuesday, before US markets open.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
General Motors (NYSE:GM), PVH (NYSE:PVH) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and ABIOMED (NASDAQ:ABMD) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.