U.S. stocks close lower ahead of French election, post weekly gains

U.S. stocks closed lower Friday ahead of French election, but posted weekly gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 30.54 points, or 0.15 percent, to 20,548.17. The S&P 500 lost 7.14 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,348.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index erased 6.26 points, or 0.11 percent, to 5,910.52.

The first round of closely contested French presidential election votes will take place on Sunday and investors exercised caution ahead of it.

Meanwhile, traders also kept an eye on earnings reason.

Shares of General Electric ended the trading day Friday at 29.55 U.S. dollars per share, down 2.38 percent, even though the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results.

Visa also reported strong quarterly results on Friday and announced a five billion dollars share repurchase program. Shares of Visa ticked up 0.44 percent around midday but ended flat at 91.15 dollars on Friday.

The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 11.2 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 6.8 percent.

On the economic front, U.S. home resales rose more than expected in March to the highest level in more than a decade, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Friday.

Existing home sales climbed 4.4 percent for the month, while economists were expecting a smaller increase of 2.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.

Meanwhile, adjusted for seasonal influences, the Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing PMI for April decreased to 52.8 from 53.3 in March.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow rose 0.46 percent, and the broader S&P 500 gained 0.85 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.82 percent. Endit