The US markets ended mostly lower on Friday, while Dow Jones Industrial ekes out marginal gains on strong quarterly earnings reports. The markets initially gained the momentum supported by a rally by Chinese stocks, which rebounded strongly from an initial move to the downside despite disappointing GDP data. Data showed Chinese GDP climbed an annual 6.5 percent in the third quarter, shy of estimates for 6.6 percent and down from 6.7 percent in the previous quarter. However, traders failed to hold the momentum and slipped into negative territory, as concerns about rising interest rates and tension between the US and Saudi Arabia continued to weigh on the markets. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday announced that he was pulling out of an investment conference in Riyadh in response to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident.
Investors overlooked a report from the National Association of Realtors showing a much steeper than expected drop in existing home sales in the month of September. NAR said existing home sales plunged by 3.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.15 million in September after edging down by 0.2 percent to a revised rate of 5.33 million in August. Street had expected existing home sales to drop by 0.7 percent. With the much bigger than expected decrease, existing home sales slumped to their lowest annual rate since November of 2015.
Nasdaq declined 36.11 points or 0.48 percent to 7,449.03 and S&P 500 was down by 1.00 points or 0.04 percent to 2,767.78, while Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 64.89 points or 0.26 percent to 25,444.34.
