US Stocks Edge Lower As 5-day Winning Streak Ends

Wall Street stocks finished slightly lower on Friday after a sleepy session as markets looked ahead to the start of earnings season next week.

The Dow Jones closed down a hair to finish the week at 23,995.

The S&P 500 lost less than 0.1 percent to end at 2,596, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.2 percent to close at 6,971.

US stocks had risen the last five sessions on dovish reassurances from Fed officials and hopes US-China trade talks will yield a deal.

That streak ended on Friday, yet stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the day.

After a bumpy December, investors have largely set aside fears over a global economic slowdown, as well as mounting concerns over a prolonged US government shutdown due to a budget dispute between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats.

Investors are now looking ahead to fourth-quarter earnings period, which begins in earnest next week with results from JPMorgan Chase and other large banks.

Markets will be looking for signs from executives on the extent to which the economic outlook may have weakened, analysts said.

Among individual companies, General Motors surged 7.0 percent after forecasting better-than-expected profits for 2018 and 2019 following job cuts announced in December.

Activision Blizzard plunged 9.4 percent following news that video game developer Bungie will assume the Destiny game venture on its own.

Netflix jumped 4.0 percent following upgrades from UBS and Raymond James. (AFP)