US equities posted mixed results for the week as Wall Street digested more quarterly earnings reports as well as a surprising settlement between two tech giants.
For the week, which was shortened due to Good Friday, the Dow and the Nasdaq rose 0.56 per cent and 0.17 per cent, respectively, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.08 per cent.
Wall Street started the week with earnings from two bank giants as the corporate earnings season kicked into full gear, reports Xinhua.
Goldman Sachs delivered first-quarter results before Monday's opening bell, with adjusted earnings per share of 5.71 US dollars, beating market consensus.
However, its revenue for the quarter missed estimates. Shares of Goldman Sachs slid 3.82 per cent at Monday's close. The stock decreased 0.93 per cent for the week.
Citigroup also reported on Monday with earnings topping expectations while revenue missed. Shares of the bank gained 3.34 per cent for the week.
Shares of United Rentals jumped 8.14 per cent on Thursday, sending the stock up 7.3 per cent for the week on stronger-than-anticipated quarterly numbers.
Honeywell International, The Travelers Companies and American Express were among the companies that reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday. All of the companies’ shares reported weekly gains.
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, more than 78 per cent have topped analyst expectations, FactSet data showed.
Investors also cheered the legal settlement between Qualcomm and Apple.
After settling a lawsuit with iPhone maker Apple, US chipmaker Qualcomm added about 26 billion US dollars to its market value over the course of two days.
Shares of Qualcomm on Wednesday jumped 12.25 per cent following a 23.21-per cent surge in the previous session, fuelled by the news that the company and Apple had settled a lawsuit regarding royalty disputes.
The settlement, announced on Tuesday, included an unspecified payment from Apple to Qualcomm.
The two companies also reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement.
Share of Qualcomm and Apple were up about 40 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, for the week.
However, a sharp decline in health care shares offset some of the optimism from the solid earnings and excited corporate news.
The S&P 500 health care sector dropped more than 4.0 per cent this week.
Health care is one among the worst-performing groups this year as calls for lower drug prices and debates about medical care plans in the United States weighted on the sector, experts noted.
On the economic front, the advance estimates of US retail sales were 514.1 billion US dollars in March, an increase of 1.6 per cent from the previous month, as spending on autos, gasoline, furniture, and clothing jumped, according to the Department of Commerce on Thursday. The reading was higher than market consensus.
Meanwhile, in the week ending April 13, US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 192,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labour reported. Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast a reading of 204,000.