The focus on individual companies marked a turnaround from earlier this month, when all eyes were on developments in Greece’s bailout talks and China’s tumbling stock market.
Stocks tumbled Friday as Wall Street suffered a fourth straight day of losses and sent the major indexes down more than 2% for the week.
On Friday, stocks were lower across the board and slowly grinding to their lows of the day through the afternoon.
In other corporate news, Visa said Thursday that profits rose 25 per cent in its latest quarter.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 164 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 17,568, with losses accelerating near the close. In the S&P 500, more than 75 percent of companies have beaten Wall Street profit predictions, leaving the index up 2.7 percent since earnings season began.
In its most recent quarterly financial report, Biogen, Inc.
In addition to some “tepid results” from U.S. companies, Sorensen said, “some of today’s action can (also) be attributable to China having a relatively weak manufacturing reading”.
Caterpillar is selling fewer of its signature yellow diggers and dump trucks to miners amid the deepening slump in prices for copper, coal and iron ore, while 3M reduced the top end of its 2015 profit and revenue, citing lower-than-expected global economic growth.
Materials stocks were the second worst performers in the S&P 500, losing 2.2 per cent. The S&P 500 has hit against resistance near 2134, then pulled back three times since late May.
Nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 ended lower.
European stocks fell, even after another sign of a modest recovery in the eurozone economy. Telecommunications services led the gainers, rising 0.9 percent. AbbVie declined $2.35, or 3.3 percent, to $68.17.
Capital One and Biogen plunged after reporting results that disappointed investors.
As of June, AT&T reported cash and cash equivalents of $20.95 billion from $11.3 billion in a year ago period. Anthem (ANTM) said it is buying rival Cigna (CI) in a $54 billion deal that will create a mammoth for-profit insurer. Investors did not immediately welcome the news. The stock rose $72.04 to $554.22.
“The strong dollar has been mentioned a lot in the earnings statements of the big US corporates”, said CMC Markets’ analyst Jasper Lawler.
News that a closely watched gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity had tumbled in July added to concerns about the slowdown in the world’s number-two economy. China’s Shanghai Composite Index sank 1.3 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.1 percent.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 43 cents to $48.02 a barrel in New York.
Gold prices resumed their decline Friday, with futures down 0.8 per cent to $US1,085.50 an ounce. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 0.003 of a percentage point to 2.275%.
