Wall Street ends the week with modest gains despite mixed financials earnings

• CBOE Volatility Index drops 3% on Friday.
• Financials pare early gains to close in the red.
• Nasdaq closes the day flat following yesterday’s impressive rally.

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day slightly higher but struggled to gather momentum as mixed earnings results from financial institutions didn’t allow the markets to feel the positive effects of easing trade conflict  fears.

The S&P 500 Industrials Sector (SPLRCI), which recorded sharp losses when Trump administration decided to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, preserved its strength for the second straight day to close 0.6% higher as investors continued to cheer Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s comments from yesterday.

Meanwhile, boosted by the news of supply disruptions in Norway and Iraq’s Umm Qasr commodities port, crude oil prices retraced a part of this week’s losses with the barrel of West Texas Intermediate adding 1% and settling a little above $71 while the S&P 500 Energy Sector (SPNY) rose 0.56%.

Just before the opening bell on Friday,  JPMorgan’s reported that its second-quarter revenue increased by 6.5% to $28.39 billion. However, Wells Fargo and Citi both reported less than expected earnings per share and revenue to weigh on the  S&P 500 Financials Sector (SPSY), which lost 0.46%.

“There’s pretty impressive resilience in spite of the disappointment from the financials, which have been and continue to be a laggard. Even in the face of that, there’s still relative strength,” Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, told Reuters.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 92.28 points, or 0.37%, to 25,079.17, the S&P 500 rose gained 3.25 points, or 0.12%, to 2,801.54 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.44 points, or 0.03%, to 7,825.98. For the week, these three major indexes gained 2.3%, 1.5%, and 1.8% respectively.