MA - S&P 500 Dow Nasdaq finish near flat line with Big Tech earnings on the horizon

2023-04-21 16:11:59 ET

Wall Street finished an uncertain week with a flat performance on Friday, as investors geared up for key earnings reports due out next week. Each of the major U.S. equity averages managed to eke out a thin gain.

The Nasdaq Composite ( COMP.IND ) closed +0.1% , the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) finished +0.1% and the Dow ( DJI ) ended +0.1% .

"Today was notable for literally nothing at all," Alex King of Cestrian Capital Research told Seeking Alpha. "Now, it’s Friday, so they are hardly alone, it’s been a tough week and really, who wants to do anything on a Friday?"

However, King added that "this big ol nothingburger isn’t as dull as it first appears." He argued that the sideways movement is "designed to lull anyone who isn’t Big Money into a false sense of security," a time "when Big Money puts in the work to make its money," making it a "very important move, if you know how to look at it."

"We believe the Nasdaq in particular is under distribution by large account players who bought at the December lows, realizing superb IRRs in advance of Big Tech earnings next week," King stated. "We anticipate weakness from the Big Tech names in Q1 just as in Q4 – the difference this time is that markets are extended, not depressed, so we believe a selloff is due, at least in the Nasdaq."

Earnings remained a key source of headlines on Friday, although the latest quarterly updates did little to drive the overall markets. Procter & Gamble ( PG ) rose after posting Street-beating earnings and revenue . Meanwhile, W.R. Berkley ( WRB ) lost ground after its bottom-line figure missed projections .

Next week will see the release of a number of high-profile earnings reports . Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ), Meta Platforms ( META ), Coca-Cola ( KO ), PepsiCo ( PEP ), Caterpillar ( CAT ), Boeing ( BA ), Visa ( V ), Mastercard ( MA ), ExxonMobil ( XOM ) and Chevron ( CVX ) are all slated to announce their results.

Trading in the fixed income market was muted, characterized by mild selling and higher Treasury yields. The 10-year yield ( US10Y ) climbed 3 basis points at 3.57%, while the 2-year yield ( US2Y ) rose 2 basis points to 4.19%.

Looking at some of the other bigger names that saw earnings-related moves on Friday, HCA Healthcare ( HCA ) rose after the operator of health care facilities exceeded expectations with its quarterly results and raised its 2023 outlook .

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