Wall St flat as investors parse earnings, data

By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - Wall Street was flat on Friday as investors digested U.S. corporate earnings as well as data that pointed to a slow global economic recovery, ahead of a crucial meeting of oil producers to help tackle a global surplus.

Crude was down more than 3 percent ahead of Sunday's meeting in Doha, led by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia, to discuss a production freeze.

The nervousness about the meeting overshadowed positive Chinese data, which showed the country's gross domestic product in the first quarter was in line with expectations - another sign that Asia's largest economy was on the mend.

Citigroup followed other big banks in reporting a lower-than-expected fall in quarterly profit. Citi's shares were up 2.5 percent at $46.12.

The S&P financial sector, which has been lagging other major sectors this year, has jumped about 4 percent this week as banks faced tempered profit expectations.

"I think it should be a fairly calm day," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts.

"The market reacted to JPMorgan's earnings, the better than expected Chinese data, and now at the end of the week, everyone's kind of settling back and thinking 'ok we got through that, lets think about what happens next week,'" he said.

At 10:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 8.7 points, or 0.05 percent, at 17,917.73, the S&P 500 was down 2.12 points, or 0.1 percent, at 2,080.66 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 3.41 points, or 0.07 percent, at 4,942.48.

The S&P energy sector was the only firm loser, falling 1.3 percent, while the other nine major S&P sectors fluctuated between small gains and losses.

A surge in oil and signs that the U.S. economy was back on track helped the S&P 500 recover from a rout earlier this year. The index is up nearly 2 percent for the year and is about 50 points shy of its all-time high.

However, data on Friday showed U.S. industrial production fell more than expected in March as output declined broadly, and consumer sentiment softened in April.

Shares of BATS Global Markets jumped 20 percent to $22.80 after the exchange operator went public, the first non-healthcare IPO of 2016.

3D Systems were down 4.4 percent at $17.48 after Citigroup cut its rating on the stock.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,427 to 1,398. On the Nasdaq, 1,319 issues rose and 1,229 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed seven new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 30 new highs and six lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)