By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 index readying for its first weekly loss in five, as Wall Street considered corporate earnings and awaited a reading on the consumer.
“It’s hard to get charged up about the latest earnings season for the S&P 500,” Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research Inc., noted in weekly comments delivered Friday.
Nick Raich, CEO at the Earnings Scout, took issue with the lackluster take on corporate results. “Clearly, earnings growth this quarter has been driven by the financial sector, but even if you exclude financial company results, 63% are still beating earnings estimates on average-sales growth of 4%,” said Raich in emailed commentary.
Zynga Inc. ZNGA -17.00% fell 16% after projecting earnings shy of estimates. Starbucks Corp. SBUX +6.86% rose 7% after reporting a quarterly profit that topped expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.51% retreated 66.05 points, or 0.4%, to 15,490.56.
The S&P 500 index SPX -0.41% lost 6.1 points, or 0.4%, to 1,684.15, with technology pacing the decline and health care the sole sector gaining among its 10 major industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP -0.31% declined 11.62 points, or 0.3%, to 3,593.52.
At 9:55 a.m. Eastern, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment for July is expected.
For every stock rising, more than two fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 56 million shares traded by 9:40 a.m. Eastern.
Of the roughly 100 companies to watch only a few “garnered the most attention. Neutral-rated Facebook surged 30% after suddenly figuring out how to monetize mobile while home builders had a rough go of it,” Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist, BTIG LLC, said of Thursday’s trade.
Thursday’s session had the Nasdaq Composite propelled by a leap in Facebook Inc.’s FB -1.05% shares after the social-networking company reported better-than-estimated results. Home builders, however, were hit, as top executives spoke of higher interest rates crimping sales.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
