U.S. stocks extend losses after GDP report

U.S. stocks retreated further Friday as Wall Street digested the news of the country's stronger-than-expected third-quarter economic growth amid generally downbeat earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 8.49 points, or 0.05 percent, to 18,161.19. The S&P 500 lost 6.63 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,126.41 The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 25.87 points, or 0.50 percent, to 5,190.10.

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.

"When the FOMC meets next week, this report will be fresh in their minds. They are likely to see it as vindication of their forecast and further reason to raise rates, despite the eroding trend still evident in the year-on-year figures," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

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 5.14 percent to 776.32 dollars apiece Friday.

Shares of Exxon Mobil declined 2.46 percent to 84.78 dollars apiece after the U.S. oil company reported a 38-percent drop in quarterly profit.

For the week, the Dow edged up 0.1 percent, and the S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent, while the Nasdaq decreased 1.3 percent. Endit