Yahoo Finance US stocks mixed after ExxonMobil, Chevron profits dive
US stocks traded mixed Friday after ExxonMobil and Chevron profits slumped on falling crude oil prices, dragging down the Dow, as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings reports.
About 50 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 26.36 points (0.15 percent) at 17,719.62.
The broad-market S&P 500 was flat (0.00 percent) at 2,108.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6.60 (0.13 percent) at 5,135.39.
The market "still has an air about it of not knowing exactly where to go. That uncertainty continues to show up in its fickle behavior," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
As crude oil prices continued to fall, ExxonMobil and Chevron reported sharply lower earnings for the second quarter. Exxon profit halved from a year ago; Chevron's profit plunged 90 percent. Shares plunged 4.8 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.
Dow member Merck gained 1.0 percent after results showed its new Ebola vaccine was effective.
Microsoft, another Dow blue chip, edged up 0.2 percent after reporting 14 million people installed the Windows 10 operating system in the first 24 hours following its release, calling the response "overwhelmingly positive."
UPS gained 0.7 percent after announcing it was buying Coyote Logistics for $1.8 billion.
Professional networking site LinkedIn plummeted 9.6 percent after posting strong second-quarter results late Thursday, as analysts said there were signs that the company's growth may be cooling.
A shockingly poor report on worker pay raised questions about Federal Reserve plans to raise near-zero interest rates this year, sending the dollar lower and Treasuries higher.
Wages and salaries rose 0.2 percent in the second quarter, decelerating from 0.7 percent growth in the first, the Labor Department said. Analysts noted it was the smallest growth in civilian employment costs on record.
"The central question is whether this very sharp and unexpected decline in wages and salaries will trigger alarm bells at the Fed, causing a delay for the first rate hike," said Ozlem Yaylaci, US economist at IHS Global Insight.
Bond prices advanced. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury tumbled to 2.21 percent from 2.27 percent Thursday, while the 30-year fell to 2.91 percent from 2.95 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
