Stocks ended the week with tiny gains Friday as Wall Street weighed earnings in the financial sector and September retail sales data.
The Dow Jones industrials eked out a 0.2% gain as Goldman Sachs (GS), Intel (INTC) and DuPont (DD) outperformed. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite edged higher by less than 0.1%. For the week, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell 1%, and the Dow gave up 0.6%.
Advancing stocks had a small edge over decliners on both exchanges. Preliminary data showed volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq coming in lower than Thursday's levels.
In economic news, retail sales rose 0.6% in September, in line with the consensus estimate. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5%, also in line with views.
Paper, solar and steel stocks outperformed. Department-store operators, biotechs and gold stocks lagged.
In the stock market today, big-cap financials like Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) rose early on earnings but faded badly by the close. Citi and JPMorgan ended nominally higher; Wells Fargo, which saw its CEO resign this week amid an outcry over the bank's cross-selling scandal, finished the week down more than 1%.
Inside the IBD 50, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) bounced off its 50-day moving average, rising 1%, after several published reports noted that Oppenheimer initiated coverage with an outperform rating and set a 53 price target.
IBD'S TAKE: Business is booming for video game makers like Activision. For more on Activision and its competitors, check out this in-depth Industry Snapshot.
Leaderboard name Domino's Pizza (DPZ) ended in the bottom half of its intraday range but still rose 0.5% after Bank of America upgraded shares to buy from outperform ahead of its earnings report Tuesday before the open.
Crude oil capped its fourth straight weekly gain. WTI crude oil futures for November delivery eased 9 cents, or 0.2%, to $50.35 a barrel. For the week, oil rose just over 1%.
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