Stocks end mixed; Dow up for tenth day in a row

July 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rising marginally to post its 10th straight day of gains, its longest gain in nearly six years.

The blue-chip index was lifted by gains of more than 1% each in Procter & Gamble ( PG.N ) and Chevron ( CVX.N ). It’s now up more than 6% in 2023, compared with the S&P 500’s (.SPX) 18% gain.

“The Dow playing catch-up shows there’s a rotation to other sectors, like health care and financials. The rally isn’t just tech-heavy anymore,” said Jake Dollarhide, managing director of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Nvidia ( NVDA.O ) and Meta Platforms ( META.O ) each lost more than 2% in choppy trading, while the S&P 500 utilities sector ( .SPLRCU ) jumped 1.5%, followed by a 1% gain in the healthcare sector index ( .SPXHC ).

Netflix ( NFLX.O ) fell 2.3%, down for a second straight day after the video streaming company’s quarterly results this week failed to impress.

Analysts attributed Friday’s volatile trading to the expiration of monthly options and the expected special rebalancing of the multi-trillion-dollar Nasdaq 100 (.NDX) after market close.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.03% to end at 4,536.34 points.

The Nasdaq fell 0.22% to 14,032.81 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.01% to 35,227.69 points.

For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.7%, the Nasdaq fell 0.6% and the Dow rose 2.1%.

The Nasdaq has risen about 34% this year, lifted by optimism over artificial intelligence, a relatively resilient US economy and expectations that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hike cycle will soon end.

While the Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at the meeting on 25-26 July, investors have mixed views on the central bank’s long-term monetary policy.

American Express ( AXP.N ) fell 3.9% after the credit card giant missed quarterly revenue estimates and reaffirmed its full-year profit forecast.

SLB ( SLB.N ) fell 2.2% after the top oil services firm missed quarterly earnings expectations due to moderate drilling activity in North America.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners in the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) by a ratio of 1.5 to one.

Volume on US exchanges was relatively light, with 10.4 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 10.6 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Reporting by Noel Randewich in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang

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