Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Friday thanks to a slew of mostly positive reports from the financial sector and despite weaker-than-expected data on the American consumer.
At 11:13AM ET (16:13GMT), the Dow Jones inched up 4 points, or 0.02%, the S&P 500 gained 6 points, or 0.25%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 28 points, or 0.51%.
The U.S. quarterly reporting season kicked off in earnest on Friday with a positive reading on the banking sector.
JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) saw shares move 0.79% higher after reporting a 23.8% rise in quarterly profit that allowed the largest U.S. bank by assets to beat on both the top and bottom line.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), also a Dow component and the second-largest U.S. bank, advanced 0.72% after reporting 46.8% increase in profit. It’s EPS of $0.40 beat by two cents.
Shares in Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) also jumped 2.30% as the largest mortgage lender in the U.S. produced an EPS excluding items of $1.03, beating the consensus by three cents, despite registering its fifth straight quarterly decline in profit.
Earnings trend analysis firm The Earnings Scout (ES) noted that 29 companies from the S&P 500 had already reported fourth quarter earnings.
“EPS and sales growth rates are accelerating but ‘beat’ rates are down from last quarter,” these experts warned.
Eyes will likely remain focused on earnings next week with 36 S&P companies releasing their reports.
On the economic front, retail sales rose less than expected in December, with core figures also missing consensus.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for January also unexpectedly fell, albeit from a 12-year high.
Meanwhile, oil prices were on track to record their first weekly decline in over a month as market participants began to have doubts over just how much major oil producers would stick to their agreement to cut production.
OPEC sources told Reuters that major oil producers were unlikely to fully implement their promised cuts.
According to the report, delegates said that 80% compliance would be good while as low as 50% would be acceptable.
Investors were also cautious as they waited for more signs of the ramp up in U.S. drilling activity in the weekly report from Baker Hughes out later on Friday.
According to the oilfield services provider, data last week showed that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. increased by 4 to 529, the tenth straight weekly rise and a level not seen in more than a year.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.34% to $52.30 by 11:16AM ET (15:16GMT), while Brent oil traded down 1.12% to $55.38.