Stocks are slightly lower (SPY, SPX, DJI, IXIC, JPY, USD, DXY, MCD, MFST, CAT, USO, WTI, OIL, VDE)
Investing.com
Stocks opened relatively flat on Friday — a quiet day for economic data but a busy morning for earnings.
Near 12:25 p.m. ET, the Dow was down 38 points, the S&P 500 was down 6 points, and the Nasdaq was down 61 points.
Stocks closed lower Thursday, with the Dow shedding 113 points, pulling back from highs of the year and slipping below the 18,000 level.
Microsoft was the biggest loser on the S&P 500 and the Dow in early Friday trading, down 6% after a miss on earnings with weak guidance.
The tech sector led overall declines.
The yen has made one of the more interesting moves in markets today. It fell to about 111.75 against the dollar, more than 2%, after Bloomberg reported that the Bank of Japan was thinking about offering a negative rate on some loans to help banks lend.
Crude oil rallied. West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York rose about 1.2% to as high as $44.45 per barrel.
Meanwhile, gold was weaker, down 1.5%, or $18.80 an ounce, to as low as $1,229.40.
In earnings, Caterpillar missed on earnings by one penny, and lowered its forecast for full-year earnings per share. The company expects that some of its businesses will remain weak even though commodity prices have rebounded a bit.
McDonald's blew it out of the water with a 46% rise in adjusted EPS that topped estimates. All-day breakfast also helped the company beat forecasts for US same-store sales.
Markit's flash manufacturing PMI for April fell to 50.8, a six-year low.
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