Investing.com – Wall Street traded near the unchanged mark around midday in what was a session of choppy trade on Friday as investors digested economic and corporate news flow and waited for the outcome of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers.
At 11:54AM ET (15:54GMT), the Dow Jones gave up 13 points, or 0.06%, the S&P 500 retreated 2 points, or 0.09%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5 points, or 0.08%.
Investors were keeping an eye on the G20 two-meeting that began Friday in Baden-Baden Germany with the draft communique focused on renouncing competitive devaluations and warning against exchange rate volatility.
Reports showed that the group’s representatives had yet to make an agreement over protectionism, although Reuters said that there was a broad interest in cooperation on taxation.
With that in the background, investors digested mostly positive economic data on Friday.
Consumer sentiment rose more than expected in March while their expectations also beat consensus, according to preliminary data released by the University of Michigan on Friday.
Manufacturing production showed a higher-than-forecast increase in February although industrial output was flat, missing expectations for a 0.2% gain.
In company news, Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) gained nearly 3% after the company posted its second straight rise in quarterly revenue, beating expectations, thanks to strong demand for its high-end jewelry in Japan and China.
Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) led the gainers on the S&P 500 with a rise of almost 6% after the company posted after the tech firm better-than-expected quarterly results, buoyed by demand for its Creative Cloud package of software tools, which includes Photoshop.
In other news in the sector, shares in enterprise software firm Mulesoft Inc (NYSE:MULE) soared more than 40% in its first day of trade.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) raised about $1.2 billion by selling common shares and convertible bonds, roughly 20% than it had originally planned ahead of the launch of the crucial Model 3 sedan.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) announced that four of its 12 directors would not stand for re-election to the restaurant chain’s board.
ValueAct Capital raised its stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) just days after its biggest shareholder Pershing Square (NYSE:SQ) sold all its holdings and exited the firm.
Meanwhile, oil prices traded largely unchanged in choppy trade on Friday as investors waited to gauge the latest reading of U.S. drilling activity as Baker Hughes releases his latest weekly data later in the session.
Last week, the oil services provider said that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 8, the eighth weekly increase in a row. That brought the total count to 617, the most since October 2015.
U.S. crude futures slipped 0.02% to $48.74 by 11:56AM ET (15:56GMT), while Brent oil inched down 0.08% to $51.70.