Wall Street flat as bank earnings disappoint
US stocks closed barely changed on Friday, after wavering between modest gains and losses, as mixed bank earnings offset cooler-than-expected inflation news that buoyed hopes for interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. On Friday, data showed US producer prices unexpectedly fell in December as the cost of goods such as food and diesel fuel declined, while prices for services were unchanged for a third consecutive month, in contrast to Thursday's hotter-than-expected consumer inflation reading. "The PPI tells us something that is a little bit different than the CPI," said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in New York. "It raises the probability that the Fed has the free and clear to decide to cut interest rates and the equity market really doesn't care all that much as long as rates are not pushing significantly higher." The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.31 percent, to 37,593. The S&P 500 gained 0.08 percent, at 4,784 and the Nasdaq rose 0.02 percent, to 14,973. For the week, the Dow gained 0.34 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.84 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 3.09 percent. The gains for the S&P were the biggest weekly percentage rise since mid-December and for the Nasdaq, the largest since early November. Bank of America fell 1.06 percent after its fourth-quarter profit shrank as the lender took US$3.7 billion in one-off charges, while Wells Fargo's warning of a 7 percent to 9 percent drop in net interest income in 2024 sent the bank's shares down 3.34 percent. But Citigroup rose 1.04 percent after reporting a US$1.8 billion fourth-quarter loss and saying it expected further job cuts. The Dow fell, largely due to a 3.37 percent decline in UnitedHealth after the company reported higher-than-expected medical costs, accounting for about 120 points of downside pressure to the index. Delta Air Lines tumbled 8.97 percent after the carrier scaled down its annual profit outlook. Tesla lost 3.67 percent after trimming prices of some new China models and plans to suspend most car production at its factory near Berlin. (Reuters)