US stocks end week with losses

Eight of ten sectors finished in the red with the consumer discretionary in the lead

US stocks ended in the red on Friday, 25 July 2014. The stock market capped the trading week with losses across the major averages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 17,000 on Friday on disappointing earnings, leaving it with its biggest weekly decline in six weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 123.23 points, or 0.7%, to 16,960.57. For the week, the blue-chip index fell 0.8%. The S&P 500 closed 9.6 points, or 0.5%, lower at 1,978.34 and finished the week roughly where it started it. The Nasdaq Composite shed 22.5 points, or 0.5%, to 4,449.56, but eked out a weekly gain of 0.4%

Eight of ten sectors finished in the red with the consumer discretionary space at the bottom of the leaderboard. The Dow was weighed down by losses in Visa.

The Nasdaq was pressured by shares of Amazon.com which fell 9.7% in reaction to a bottom-line miss and cautious guidance. Visa dropped 3.8% after the credit-card company trimmed its forecast for annual revenue growth.

But one of the day's standouts was fast-food chain El Pollo Loco, whose shares surged 60% to $24 on their trading debut, after the initial public offering was priced at $15.

On the economic front at wall Street, the durable orders report for June surpassed estimates (+0.7% versus consensus 0.3%), but shipments of goods declined 1.0%, which will be a negative for Q2 GDP.

Precious metals climbed higher on Friday, 25 July 2014 at Comex on further geopolitical tension in Ukraine and Gaza. Headlines indicated that Russia's foreign minister reiterated his belief that the U.S. shares blame for the bloodshed in Ukraine. In addition, chatter circulated that Israel has officially rejected a ceasefire proposal.

Despite strength in the dollar index, August gold came off its session low of $1293.30 per ounce and rose as high as $1303.80 per ounce. It settled 1.0% higher at $1303.00 per ounce, booking a 0.5% loss for the week.

September silver traded as high as $20.65 per ounce after lifting from a session low of $20.42 per ounce. It settled with a 1.1% gain at $20.64 per ounce, cutting weekly losses to 1.1%.

Crude prices ended marginally higher at Nymex on Friday, 25 July 2014 at Nymex. Prices climbed on further geopolitical tension in Ukraine and Gaza. Headlines indicated that Russia's foreign minister reiterated his belief that the U.S. shares blame for the bloodshed in Ukraine. In addition, chatter circulated that Israel has officially rejected a ceasefire proposal.

The energy component touched a session high of $102.53 per barrel and settled 4 cents higher at $102.10 per barrel, booking a 0.1% gain for the week. September crude oil chopped around near the unchanged line on after trading as low as $100.95 per barrel in early morning action.

Treasuries rallied into the early afternoon and the 10-yr note settled on its high with the benchmark yield down four basis points at 2.47%.

Participation was well below average with under 558 million shares changing hands at the NYSE.

Next week has the potential to be big for economic news, with a Federal Open Market Committee meeting and the monthly jobs report topping a long list of data on the docket.

Monday's data will be limited to the Pending Home Sales report for June (consensus -0.8%), which will be released at 10:00 ET.

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