U.S. stocks rally amid Yellen speech, upbeat earnings

U.S. stocks pared early gains to end mildly lower Friday, as investors digested remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen amid upbeat earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.44 points, or 0.22 percent, to 18,138.38. The S&P 500 edged up 0.43 point, or 0.02 percent, to 2,132.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.83 point, or 0.02 percent, to 5,214.16.

Yellen said Friday that the Fed may need to run a "high-pressure economy" to reverse damage from the crisis that depressed output, sidelined workers and risks becoming a permanent scar, according to Reuters.

Though not addressing interest rates or immediate policy concerns directly, Yellen laid out the deepening concern at the Fed that U.S. economic potential is slipping and may need aggressive steps to rebuild it.

In corporate news, Citigroup Inc. on Tuesday reported a net income of 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, or 1.24 dollars per share, for the third quarter of 2016, compared with 4.3 billion dollars, or 1.35 dollars per share, in the same quarter the year before.

Shares of the New York-based bank rose 0.29 percent to 48.61 dollars apiece Friday following the release of the company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 0.32 percent to 67.52 dollars apiece Friday despite the company delivered quarterly results that beat market expectations.

On the economic front, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.3 percent in September, seasonally adjusted, beating market consensus, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for September increased 0.6 percent from the previous month to 459.8 billion dollars, on par with market estimates.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow fell 0.6 percent, and the broader S&P 500 dipped 1.0 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.5 percent. Enditem