Investing.com – Wall Street notched a third-straight weekly win despite closing flat Friday, as concerns about an escalating U.S.-China trade war offset optimism over solid quarterly earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.03%. The S&P 500 fell 0.09%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell about 0.07%.
U.S.-China trade war tensions returned to the fold after President Donald Trump said he was "ready" to slap $500 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the United States.
Fears over an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China were exacerbated as Trump took to Twitter, criticizing China, and other countries for "manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower."
Trump's rebuke of China came as the Far-East nation lowered its overnight its 7-day Treasury rate by 103 basis points, pushing the yuan to its lowest level in a year. Some cited the move as a countermeasure against U.S. tariffs.
That dampened the upbeat start to the session, which followed quarterly earnings results from Microsoft, Honeywell and General Electric that beat consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Honeywell (NYSE:HON) stocks rose sharply, helping to steady the broader market. But GE's (NYSE:GE) cut of its free cash flow forecast for the year overshadowed its earnings and revenue beat, pressuring the stock more than 4% lower.
Financials also underpinned the broader market as a string of mostly better-than-expected results from major Wall Street banks kept demand elevated.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs reported above-consensus earnings this week, adding to a bullish report from JPMorgan last week.
Energy, however, weighed on sentiment as energy stocks shrugged off the a rise in U.S. oil prices Friday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for September delivery rose $1.30 to settle at $70.46 a barrel. That, however, failed to prevent oil prices slipping to a second-straight weekly loss amid a slump earlier in the week.
On the currency front, the US Dollar Index Futures had its worst day in month, supporting upside in the equities, as President Donald Trump slammed the Federal Reserve's monetary policy measures, arguing that higher interest rates were denting the United States' "big competitive edge."
Top Gainers and Losers on Wall Street Today:
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) were among the top Dow gainers for the session.
IBM (NYSE:IBM), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) were among the worst Dow performers of the session.