Stock indexes closed mostly lower on Friday as the telecom sector bore the brunt of selling.
Telecoms declined as AT&T (T) dropped on rumors of a Time-Warner (TWX) acquisition, taking down shares of Sprint (S) and Dow Jones component stock Verizon (VZ) in sympathy.
General Electric (GE) declined after reporting a miss on earnings and revenues Friday. Strong earnings, however, from Microsoft (MSFT) and McDonald’s (MCD) failed to compensate for GE’s decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average still closed the week with a gain of 0.04%.
The S&P 500 was also lower on the day, but pulled off a one point gain on the week, while the Nasdaq ended 0.6% higher for the week.
San Francisco Fed President John Williams continued to endorse another rate hike in 2016 during his keynote address at the Federal Home Loan Bank’s member conference. Williams is a non-voting member of the Fed and considered to be one of the more dovish of the Fed presidents.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.
Globally, the FTSE fell 0.1%, the Nikkei gained 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite added 0.2%.
