US stock market news: Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq post slim gain ahead of big earnings week

US stock markets ended with fractional gains on Friday following mixed earnings results as investors assessed how conflicting economic data might influence interest rates and looked ahead to a massive week of corporate reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 22.34 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 33,808.96, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 3.73 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 4,133.52 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 12.90 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 12,072.46.

Procter & Gamble Co's (PG.N) shares rose 3.5 per cent as customers kept buying despite repeated price hikes, helping the maker of products ranging from Tide detergent and Gillette razors to Head & Shoulders shampoo and Crest toothpaste boost its sales forecast and third-quarter margins.

The benchmark S&P 500 has been generally stable over the early stages of a first-quarter earnings season that investors expect to show tepid results.

Next week will see a flood of reports, including from megacap tech and growth companies whose shares have helped the S&P 500 rally to start the year.

For the week, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent, the Dow dipped 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.4 per cent.

Results next week are due from some of the highest-valued U.S. companies including Microsoft (MSFT.O), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O).

Amazon shares rose 3 per cent on Friday after a research firm predicted the online retailer's business in North America would beat Wall Street's estimates.

So far, analysts have largely retained last week's expectations of a near-5 per cent year-on-year fall in quarterly profits at S&P 500 companies, according to Refinitiv data.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.10-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 53 new highs and 186 new lows.

About 9.9 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 10.4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

With Reuters Inputs