Roundup: U.S. stocks end mixed amid earnings, data

U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday after a four-day winning streak, as investors were pondering over the fourth-quarter earnings following the prior day's big rally on the European Central Bank's (ECB's) stimulus action.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 141.38 points, or 0.79 percent, to 17,672.60. The S&P 500 fell 11.33 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,051.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 7.48 points, or 0.16 percent, to 4,757.88.

The ECB announced Thursday that they would start quantitative easing (QE) by purchasing public and private securities with a monthly amount of 60 billion euros, or about 69 billion U.S. dollars, from March this year through September 2016 in a bid to address prolonged low inflation in the eurozone.

The size of the QE program topped market expectations of a 50- billion-euro monthly purchasing program.

The three benchmark indices on Thursday extended their gaining streak into a fourth straight day, propelling the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq back to slightly positive territory for the year, as investors cheered the ECB's bigger-than-expected QE program.

However, investors were assessing if the ECB-inspired surge was too much and shifted their focus to the fourth-quarter corporate earnings.

General Electric said Friday its fourth quarter industrial segment profit rose 9 percent, while its quarterly revenues added 4 percent to 42 billion U.S. dollars. The company's shares gained 0.82 percent to 24.48 dollars apiece.

United Parcel Service shares plunged 9.91 percent to 102.93 dollars apiece, after the company posted lower-than-expected earnings outlook for the fourth quarter.

Shares of Box Inc rocketed 65.93 percent to 23.23 dollars apiece on its first day of trading as investors bet on its ability to turn profitable in a competitive market. The cloud-based storage company's initial public offering price was 14 dollars a share.

Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that S&P 500 companies' per-share earnings in the fourth quarter are expected to grow 3.5 percent year on year, while revenue growth is forecast to increase 0.6 percent.

On the economic front, January data pointed to a further upturn in business conditions across the U.S. manufacturing sector, but the overall rate of improvement eased further from last August's peak, said financial data firm Markit Friday.

The seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index edged down from 53.9 in December to 53. 7 in January, Markit said.

U.S. existing-home sales bounced back in December despite low inventory conditions, according to the National Association of Realtors. Total existing-home sales rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million units in December from a downwardly revised 4.92 million in November.

For the holiday-shortened week, the blue-chip Dow rose 0.9 percent, and the broader S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent while the tech- heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.7 percent.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, rose 1.59 percent to end at 16.66 Friday.

In other markets, U.S. oil prices retreated Friday as markets predicted that Saudi Arabia's oil strategy of maintaining output levels will remain unchanged following the death of Saudi King Abdullah.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery lost 72 cents to settle at 45.59 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery moved up 27 cents to close at 48.79 dollars a barrel.

The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies Friday as the country's economic data came out positive and the euro extended losses on the QE program launched by the ECB.

In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.1248 dollars from 1.1378 dollars in the previous session, while the greenback bought 117.74 Japanese yen, lower than 118.37 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped Friday as the dollar strengthened against the euro.

The most active gold contract for February delivery fell 8.1 dollars, or 0.62 percent, to settle at 1,292.60 dollars per ounce. Endite