US: Stocks end choppy week on a downcast note

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks fell on Friday as markets weighed another round of mostly strong earnings against concerns about rising supply chain and commodity costs.

Stocks were in the red the entire session, ending a choppy week for markets on a downcast note.

Friday's lacklustre session may suggest that "a lot of the good news is already priced in," said Shawn Cruz of TD Ameritrade, adding warnings from companies of higher supply chain costs are "a real big risk to the outlook for the rest of the year."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5 per cent at 33,874.85.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.7 per cent to 4,181.17, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.9 per cent to 13,962.68.

The S&P 500 retreated from Thursday's record but eked out a gain for the week. Both the Dow and Nasdaq finished modestly lower for the week.

Personal income surged 21.1 per cent in March and personal consumption expenditures rose 4.2 per cent, boosted by a new round of government aid under President Joe Biden's US$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

In earnings news, Amazon finished down 0.1 per cent despite reporting that its profit in the recently ended quarter tripled as revenues soared 44 percent to US$108.5 billion.

Social media company Twitter plunged 15.1 per cent after announcing weaker-than-expected earnings and disappointing user growth.

Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron fell 2.8 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, despite reporting their first profits in a series of quarters.

However, shares of petroleum companies outperformed the broader market thus far in 2021 in anticipation of a strong recovery in demand.

AFP