Stocks Dip as Oil Prices Skid
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are taking small losses Friday as energy companies are slipping with the price of oil. Citigroup became the latest bank to report weak but better-than-expected results for the first quarter.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 13 points to 17,913 as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1 point to 2,081. The Nasdaq composite index dipped 1 point to 4,945.
Utility companies, the best performing group of stocks on the market this year, are making the largest gains. Edison International rose 80 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $70.84 and NextEra Energy rose 1 percent.
U.S. stocks haven't moved much over the last two days, but they're up almost 2 percent this week.
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OIL: U.S. crude fell $1.22, or 2.9 percent, to $40.28 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost $1.12, or 2.6 percent, to $42.72 a barrel in London. The prices of wholesale gasoline, heating oil and natural gas also slumped 2 to 3 percent.
Ministers from major oil-producing companies will meet this weekend in Qatar to discuss their production policies. The price of oil has risen in recent weeks on hopes for a deal that will limit oil production in an effort to relieve a global glut. But a deal is far from a sure thing, and hopes for a meaningful production cut faded Friday and oil prices declined with them.
Chevron lost 82 cents to $97.16 and Helmerich & Payne shed $1.98, or 3.3 percent, to $57.73. Newfield Exploration gave up 55 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $34.97.
MAKING BANK: Banks continued to report their first-quarter results, and in general they haven't been as bad as analysts feared. Citigroup's profit shrank 27 percent on weak results from its consumer bank and trading businesses, but the bank's net income and revenue were greater than expected. The stock rose 39 cents to $45.37.
Bank holding company Regions Financial also reported a bigger profit and greater revenue than expected. Its stock added 22 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $8.70.
FACTORIES: U.S. factory production fell for the second month in a row, according to the Federal Reserve. That suggests American manufacturers are struggling with weak growth overseas, the strong dollar, and weak spending by U.S. consumers and businesses.
CHINA: China reported that its economy grew 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016. While that is the slowest pace in years, it matched analyst projections.
OVERSEAS: Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent lower. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares declined 0.3 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index in Japan shed 0.4 percent, while South Korean Kospi dipped 0.1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.1 percent.
BONDS, CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note declined to 1.75 percent from 1.79 percent. The euro rose to $1.1301 from $1.1267 and the dollar fell to 108.74 yen from 109.28 yen.
(KA)