It was a choppy end to the week for U.S. equity markets which finished mixed heading into a summer weekend.
Investors weighed renewed talk of more stimulus, with details coming perhaps as early as Monday, while also positioning themselves for an onslaught of earnings next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 62 points, or 0.23 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.29 percent and 0.28 percent, respectively.
The Dow and the S&P captured their third straight week of gains while the tech-heavy Nasdaq snapped a two-week winning streak.
Looking at stocks, Netflix reported second-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street estimates and forecast weak subscriber growth for the upcoming quarter. The streaming giant also elevated Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos to the role of co-CEO.
BlackRock raked in $100 billion of assets last quarter as its fixed-income exchange-traded funds and active stock strategies businesses saw record inflows. The world’s largest wealth manager had $7.32 trillion in assets under management at the end of June.
Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. were in focus after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced just before Thursday’s closing bell that its no-sail order would be extended from July 24 to at least September 30.
United Airlines reached a deal with its pilots union to limit the number of involuntary furloughs which will allow for early retirement for those aged 62 and older and different options for reducing hours.
Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil ticked up 4 cents for the week to $40.59 a barrel while gold posted a weekly gain of $10.10 to finish at $1,808.30 an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys slid lower, causing the yield on the 10-year note to climb by 2 basis points to 0.632 percent.
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE rose 0.63 percent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.35 percent and France’s CAC fell 0.31 percent.
Asian markets finished mixed, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 0.47 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite adding 0.12 percent and Japan’s Nikkei sliding 0.32 percent.
