NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended mixed on Friday, at the end of a turbulent week during which investors had to digest mixed results and economic data that raised fears that the Federal Reserve (Fed) American does not maintain its monetary policy in restrictive territory.
The Dow Jones index fell -1.12%, or 366.71 points, to 32,417.59 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 19.86 points, or -0.48%, to 4,117.37 points.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced its side by 47.41 points (0.38%) to 12,643.01 points.
“It’s hard to beat the market trend, and it’s going down,” said Ross Mayfield, an analyst at Baird. “The results have been good but they are not producing the kind of catalyst that would enable an upward turnaround.”
Data released Friday by the US Department of Commerce showed that consumer spending increased by an adjusted 0.7% last month, compared to an increase of +0.4% in August.
“The economy would be doing well with inflation of around 3%,” said Ross Mayfield. “This is the home stretch to meet the Fed’s target. It just depends on how aggressively (the Fed) wants to pursue a 2% target. That’s the big question.”
The data did little to change market expectations that the Fed will leave its key interest rate unchanged at its November meeting.
Nearly a third of S&P-500 companies reported their quarterly results this week. Of the 254 S&P 500 companies that have already reported revenue, 78% have beaten analysts’ expectations.
Analysts now expect the S&P’s overall annual earnings growth to be 4.3%, a marked improvement from the 1.6% growth seen earlier this month.
“The profits of big tech companies were measured by the yardstick of perfection, and most of the time they were just ‘good.'” That wasn’t good enough, Ross Mayfield said. “But the overall picture is good. These could be the building blocks of a rally through the end of the year.”
In terms of values, Amazon.com jumped after saying on Thursday that it expected a jump in its turnover and profit in the fourth quarter.
Intel also progressed after saying it expected revenue for the October-December period to be higher than Wall Street estimates.
Chevron, for its part, fell after reporting a quarterly profit lower than expectations.
Ford also finished lower after withdrawing its annual sales forecast on Thursday pending the signing of an agreement reached with the main American union of automobile workers (UAW) to end a movement unprecedented strike.
(Reporting Stephen Culp, with contributions from Ankika Biswas, Shashwat Chauhan and Sruthi Shankar; Camille Raynaud)
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