US stocks end mixed amid GDP data

  U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday, with Nasdaq Compostie Index eking out a new closing record, as investors digested the country's economic growth as well as a batch of technical corporate earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.13 points, or 0.04 percent, to 20,093.78. The S&P 500 lost 1.99 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,294.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5.61 points, or 0.10 percent, to 5,660.78.

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, missing market consensus and slower than the 3.5 percent increase from the previous three months, according to an advance estimate released by the Commerce Department on Friday.

The Commerce Department attributed the slower growth to the fall in exports, an acceleration in imports and a slowdown in consumer spending.

"GDP rose just 1.6% in 2016 as a whole, the weakest since 2011. With oil prices stable now and oil output rising again, 2017 GDP growth is likely to be 2.5% even before any policy changes go into effect," said Jay Morelock and Chris Low, economists at FTN Financial, in a joint note.

In corporate news, Microsoft reported that its quarterly GAAP revenue was 24.1 billion U.S. dollars and quarterly diluted earnings per share was 66 cents. Its shares jumped 2.35 percent to 65.78 dollars apiece following the release of the better-than-expected quarterly reports Friday.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) fell 1.06 percent to 823.31 U.S. dollars apiece Friday after the tech giant posted lackluster quarterly results.

The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the fourth quarter of 2016 are expected to rise 6.8 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 4.1 percent.

For the week, all three major indices posted solid gains, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq going up 1.3 percent, 1.0 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.

source: Xinhua