U.S. stocks open mixed after GDP report

U.S. stocks opened mixed Friday as Wall Street digested the news of stronger-than-expected third-quarter economic growth in the United States.

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2016, beating market consensus of 2.5 percent, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Commerce Department Friday. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 1.4 percent.

The acceleration in real GDP growth in the third quarter reflected an upturn in private inventory investment, an acceleration in exports, a smaller decrease in the state and local government spending, and an upturn in the federal government spending, the department said.

In corporate news, after Thursday's closing bell, Amazon.com, Inc. announced a net income of 252 million U.S. dollars for the third quarter of 2016, or 0.52 dollar per diluted share, compared with 79 million dollars, or 0.17 dollar per diluted share, in third quarter of 2015.

Following the release of the weaker-than-expected quarterly results, the e-commerce giant's shares slumped over 4 percent in the early trading Friday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41.64 points, or 0.23 percent, to 18,211.32. The S&P 500 edged down 0.84 point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,132.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 13.99 points, or 0.27 percent, to 5,201.99.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks reversed early gains to end lower as investors pondered over a batch of quarterly earnings results amid negative economic data. Endi