NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 closed slightly lower on Friday, with banking and financial stocks mostly falling the day after quarterly reports kicked off earnings season, but all three major U.S. stock indexes posted solid weekly gains.
To offset some of the declines, UnitedHealth Group (UN.N) stock rose after its stronger-than-expected results.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) rose 0.6% and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) fell 0.3%, while the S&P 500 Banking Index (.SPXBK) fell 0.9%. Both large banks reported higher quarterly earnings, but said they set aside more money to meet expected losses from commercial real estate loans.
The biggest impact on the benchmark was the energy sector (.SPNY), down 2.8%, and the financial sector (.SPSY), down 0.7%.
UnitedHealth shares jumped 7.2% and helped the Dow Jones index close higher. Other health insurers also advanced, with Humana (HUM.N) up 2.5% and Cigna (CI.N) up 4.7%.
“We’ve been up quite a bit year-to-date, and that was a better-than-expected earnings expectation,” said Oliver Burch, senior vice president and advisor at Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.
“What we are seeing now and we will likely continue to see through the end of the summer is a little bit of exhaustion and a lack of conviction that inventories can rise significantly.”
Today’s quarterly reporting unofficially kicked off the second quarter earnings season in the United States. Analysts expect the S&P 500’s earnings to fall 8.1% in the quarter from a year ago, according to Refintiiv data, but the majority of companies tend to beat expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113.89 points, or 0.33%, to 34,509.03 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 4.62 points, or 0.10%, to 4,505.42 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 24.87 points, or. 0.18% to 14,113.70.
Over the course of the week, the Dow Jones rose 2.3%, the S&P rose 2.4%, and the Nasdaq advanced 3.3%. The S&P 500 is up 17% for the year so far.
Among other financial company reports, Citigroup (CN) shares fell 4 percent after the lender’s quarterly earnings tumbled, while BlackRock (BLK.N) fell 1.5 percent after it reported a decline in quarterly revenue.
Some strategists said banking stocks may have sold off after the recent strong gains.
The S&P Banking Index snapped a five-session winning streak along with the KBW Regional Banking Index (.KRX), which fell 1.9% on the day.
The high-tech-related stock index (.NYFANG) fell a day after posting a record closing high.
Tesla (TSLA.O), whose shares rose 1.3%, is the first of the growth giants to go public, with earnings expected Wednesday.
Trading volume on US exchanges reached 10.72 billion shares, compared to an average of 11.04 billion for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Low issues outnumbered high issues on the NYSE by a ratio of 2.73 to 1; On the Nasdaq, the ratio was 2.33 to 1 in favor of declining stocks.
The S&P 500 posted 40 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; The Nasdaq index posted 97 new highs and 60 new lows.
Reporting by Caroline Valitkevich. Additional reporting by Johan M Cherian and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing: Soumyadib Chakrabarti, Sriraj Kaluvella, Magu Samuel, Vinay Dwivedi and David Gregorio
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