US close: Corporate earnings cap gains on Wall Street

Acting as a backdrop, investors were also digesting big moves in foreign exchange markets ahead of next week's US and Japanese central bank policy meetings. The yen plummeted by over 2.0% against sterling and the greenback after Bloomberg reported the Bank of Japan might begin to pay banks for them to extend credit.

“It’s worth noting that we are still broadly higher on the week but still, there is a feeling that we needed a decent earnings season to justify equities at these elevated levels, particularly in the US where the Dow and S&P 500 are within touching distance of all-time highs,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“Even with the bar being set very low, US corporates have so far failed to impress, let alone blow us away.”

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial were nevertheless higher for the week, with the former tacking on another 0.5% gain, despite most market commentary insistently highlighting that valuations for share prices were already high against a backdrop of falling corporate earnings.

Losses in the technology space dragged on the Nasdaq-100, which ended the day 39.66 points or 0.8% lower at 4,906.23, while the Dow Jones Industrials managed to edge higher by 0.12% or 21.23 points to 18,003.75.

Energy shares paced the advance on the Russell 2000 Index, which rose 1% as energy shares leapt 3%.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg were projecting a 9.3% drop in first-quarter income at S&P 500 companies, still well down from forecasts for flat profits at the turn of last year. However, approximately 82% of those which had reported thus far managed to report earnings ahead of expectations from analysts on Wall Street.

Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures closed the session higher by 31 cents at $43.73 per barrel on the NYMEX.

Stoking gains in the oil patch, the US oil rig count dropped by a further eight in the latest week to 343, according to Baker Hughes.

Q2 GDP might also be weakish

Markit's US manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for April slipped from 51.5 in March to 50.8 (consensus: 52.0).

According to the survey compiler, that was the weakest upturn in overall business conditions since September 2009.

"Survey measures of output and order book backlogs are down to their lowest since the height of the global financial crisis, prompting employers to cut back on their hiring.

"With prior months’ survey data pointing to annualized GDP growth of just 0.7% in the first quarter, the deteriorating performance of manufacturing suggests that growth could weaken closer towards stagnation in the second quarter," Markit said in a statement.

Preliminary figures on first quarter US GDP were scheduled for release on 28 April and the latest policy announcements from the Fed and BoJ on 27 and 28 April, respectively.

Big tech sees sharp drops

Shares in Google parent company Alphabet were down by 5% after reporting first quarter profit that missed analysts’ expectations.

Microsoft's stock price closed 7.17% lower at $51.78 as the software maker reported lower-than-expected revenues and earnings for its third quarter.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said adjusted revenues rose 1.6% to $22.08bn in its fiscal third quarter (consensus: $22.09bn), resulting in earnings per share of 62 cents, below the 64 cents analysts had been expecting.

General Electric declined after reporting a wider loss for the first quarter.

McDonald's also failed to impress with its own set of quarterly numbers.

By industrial sectors, the largest gains were seen in the following groups: Railroads (3.93%), Coal (3.83%), Consumer electronics (2.97%) and Exploration and production (2.75%).

Ten-year benchmark US Treasury notes retreated, pushing yields higher by three basis points to 1.89%, while gold futures gave back 1.33% to end at $1,233.70/oz.

S&P 500 - Risers

Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) $12.27 +15.00%
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) $91.33 +10.53%
Range Resources Corp. (RRC) $39.75 +6.94%
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $33.98 +6.75%
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $33.66 +6.42%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $6.55 +5.82%
Hess Corp. (HES) $63.38 +5.32%
SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI) $41.96 +5.24%
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) $52.55 +5.04%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $35.20 +3.74%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $51.78 -7.17%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $121.35 -5.70%
Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $737.77 -5.41%
Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $718.77 -5.32%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $57.68 -4.88%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $38.21 -4.50%
Royal Caribbean Cr (RCL) $73.80 -3.91%
United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) $50.74 -3.83%
Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) $126.88 -3.70%
Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) $51.59 -3.17%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $44.54 +2.02%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $110.84 +1.88%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $65.97 +1.35%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $50.55 +1.04%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $134.13 +0.88%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $166.75 +0.86%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $87.53 +0.85%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $103.77 +0.84%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $135.66 +0.79%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $102.01 +0.60%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $51.78 -7.17%
Visa Inc. (V) $79.11 -2.08%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $59.43 -1.08%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $31.64 -1.03%
General Electric Co. (GE) $30.76 -0.71%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $148.50 -0.54%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $78.32 -0.43%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $28.15 -0.32%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $105.68 -0.27%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $125.50 -0.23%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $33.98 +6.75%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $49.76 +3.45%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $43.78 +2.87%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $32.02 +2.86%
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) $253.75 +2.20%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (FOX) $30.75 +2.19%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) $37.31 +2.16%
Liberty Media Corporation - Series C (LMCK) $18.26 +2.07%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $30.93 +1.98%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $93.80 +1.97%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $51.78 -7.17%
Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $737.77 -5.41%
Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $718.77 -5.32%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $57.68 -4.88%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $38.21 -4.50%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. - Ordinary Shares (NCLH) $48.66 -2.62%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $110.56 -2.54%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $28.30 -1.70%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $620.50 -1.66%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $94.79 -1.64%