US stocks faced another day of back-and-forth trading on Friday as investors analyzed a medley of company results and watched unrelenting bullishness in bond yields.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was just below levels. Treasuries saw significant moves again, with the benchmark 10-year bond rallying towards 4.3%, a level not seen since 2008 before taking a breather.
Investors evaluated a Wall Street Journal report showing that Federal Reserve officials are poised to present another 0.75% rate hike at their Nov. 1-2 meeting, and are expected to comment on it then debating whether and how to indicate plans to give the green light for a smaller increase in December.
Despite being down for the past two days, stocks are poised to end the week higher after a rally on Monday and Tuesday boosted all three major averages and helped the S&P 500 gain 4% before the index lost momentum. The S&P 500 was up 3.1% in October at Thursday’s close – a respite for investors after its 9.3% loss in September.
“We’re closer to the end than the beginning, and the more bear market rallies we see, the fewer remain before we finally flush it all out,” Liz Young, SoFi’s head of investment strategy, said in a note. “A few more things to tick off the list, but if or when earnings collapse and just before economic data falls into contractionary conditions, start chasing market opportunities — that could be right around the corner.”
The third-quarter earnings season has so far held up better than many analysts were expecting, with beats from companies like Netflix (NFLX), AT&T (T), and IBM (IBM) offset by big misses from names like Snap (SNAP). which fell 31% on Friday after disappointing Wall Street with its results.
The messaging application Snapchat is seen on a phone screen on August 3, 2017. Portal/Thomas White
The social media platform reported a fifth straight quarterly slowdown, along with lackluster earnings and a warning that sales trends could deteriorate in the current three-month period.
The story goes on
“It’s difficult to analyze how many of Snap’s problems are temporary,” Jefferies analyst Brent Thill said in a note. “The flagging macro backdrop is partly to blame for the weak results, but we wonder how much is due to iOS’s privacy issues and competitive threats.”
Snap’s declines extended to other social media and tech peers as of Friday morning, with shares of Meta (META) down 3% and shares of Twitter (TWTR) down nearly 5%.
—
Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
Click here for the latest stock tickers from the Yahoo Finance platform
For the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events moving stocks, click here
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Follow Yahoo Finance on TwitterFacebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn and YouTube