US close: Stocks mixed following EU-US energy deal

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks put on a mixed performance on Friday after the European Union struck a deal with the US in an effort to lower its Russian energy usage.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44% at 34,861.24, while the S&P 500 was 0.51% firmer at 4,543.06 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.16% weaker at 14,169.03.

The Dow closed 153.30 points higher on Friday, building upon solid gains recorded in the previous session.

In focus on Friday was news that the US and EU had reached a deal to increase exports of liquefied natural gas to the block and cut its dependence on Russian energy.

President Joe Biden and his European Commission counterpart Ursula von der Leyen said the deal would see LNG shipments to Europe rise by 15.0bn cubic metres in 2022.

"This will replace the LNG supply we currently receive from Russia, and looking ahead, the United States and Europe will ensure stable demand and supply for an additional at least 50 billion cubic metres of US LNG until 2030," von der Leyen said, noting that amount would replace one-third of Russian gas imports. "We are right on track now to diversify away from Russian gas," she said.

Also in focus, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note eased off from a fresh multi-year high to 2.467% by the end of trading.

On the macro front, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment was revised slightly lower to 59.4 in March, down from a preliminary of 59.7 for the lowest reading since August 2011. The subindexes for both current conditions and expectations were both revised down to 67.2 from 67.8 and 54.3 from 54.4, respectively.

Elsewhere, US existing homes sales plunged 5.4% year-on-year in February, according to the National Association of Realtors, marking a nine-month drop in transactions

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Friday.

Dow Jones - Risers

Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $187.75 1.92%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $169.31 1.81%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $131.26 1.62%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $133.70 1.23%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $152.83 1.16%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $81.34 1.16%
3M Co. (MMM) $150.46 0.99%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $176.92 0.96%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $64.54 0.95%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $61.53 0.90%