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US stocks end choppy session mostly lower
NEW YORK, Oct 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Wall Street stocks finished a choppy
session mostly lower Friday despite a good group earnings, amid lingering
volatility after a deep pullback the prior day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the major indices, winning 0.3
percent to end the week at 25,444.34.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 2,767.78, while the tech-
rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.5 percent to close at 7,449.03.
All three major indices slumped more than one percent on Thursday due to a
panoply of issues including uncertainty about US-Saudi relations following
the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“In a week when developments seem more mixed than bearish, markets are
struggling to stabilize from an early-October shock that began in Bonds and
ended in Equities,” JPMorgan Chase said in a research note.
The analysts said earnings would be a positive catalyst for stocks over
the next two or three weeks, but warned of a medium-term hit after the period
of “peak” earnings growth ends.
Consumer products conglomerate Procter & Gamble shares surged 8.9 percent
after reporting its best sales growth in five years. The consumer products
giant also said it plans additional price increases on items in the US and
some overseas markets due to higher material costs and the strong dollar.
Chemical firm DowDuPont fell 1.9 percent after it wrote down $4.6 billion
in assets in its agricultural unit, which has suffered due to weak sales in
the US and Latin America.
Toymaker Hasbro shed 0.5 percent as it confirmed job cuts in the wake of
the retail shakeout, which included the demise of the iconic Toys ‘R’ US
chain. Hasbro, which had 5,400 employees at the end of 2017, said the cuts
would “impact a single digit percentage of our global workforce.”
EBay sank 8.9 percent following a downgrade from Stifel, which pointed to
commentary from PayPal suggesting weak business conditions at the online
marketplace.
BSS/AFP/HR/0945