Closing Bell
All three major indices closed Friday trading on a sour note, falling across the board during the final session of the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29%, or 75 points to 25,453, while the S&P 500 declined 0.65%, or 19 points to 2,819, and the Nasdaq brought up the rear, falling 1.46%, or 115 points to 7,737.
Walmart Switches Store Cards to Capital One From Synchrony
Walmart (WMT) announced that it is ending its 20-year relationship with Synchrony Financial (SYF) , instead choosing to issue its store credit cards through Capital One (COF) .
The announcement sent Synchrony shares falling 1.7% Friday, though Capital One shares were also declining, 1.34% Friday.
Synchrony's partnership with Walmart is set to expire on July 31, 2019.
Separately, Synchrony reported its quarterly results Friday, earnings 92 cents per share in the period, results that are a dime better than analysts were expecting from the company.
Facebook Recovery Stalls, Stock Trades Lower
Shares of Facebook (FB) looked like they were ready to bounce back Friday morning after a 19 point route in Thursday's session, but the stock was back in the red, falling 0.37% on the day.
Facebook shares dropped 19% Thursday, wiping out $120 billion in market value in the process, the worst single-day drop in value in U.S. stock market history.
Facebook reported a second-quarter revenue miss, shrinking margins and tepid guidance earlier this week, resulting in Thursday's drop.
China Says It's Not Responsible for Nixed Qualcomm-NXP Deal
Qualcomm (QCOM) shares are down 1% Friday morning after Chinese antitrust regulators said that the company's failed bid to acquire Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) was not the fault of the People's Republic.
"Qualcomm and NXP decided to abandon the deal as the deadline the two parties agreed on expired. [We] regret this," China's State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement.
Qualcomm dropped its $44 billion bid for the company Wednesday and cited trouble with Chinese regulatory approval as a reason for the deal failing.
Qualcomm will have to pay a $2 billion termination fee to NXP for backing out of the deal.
Fake Account Purge Has Twitter Plunging Friday
Twitter (TWTR) shares are down 18.5% Friday after the social media network released its quarterly report.
The company is int he midst of purging its network of fake accounts which, along with tougher data privacy laws in the EU, caused the number of monthly active users worldwide to fall by a million quarter to quarter to 335 million.
Adding to Twitter's woes is the historic selloff of Facebook. Following weak results from the world's leading social media platform, the stock fell by 19% and wiped out $120 billion in value from the company's market cap.
U.S. GDP Grew by 4.1% in the Second Quarter
The U.S. Commerce Department expects the second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product to increase by 4.1% when all is said and done, just shy of the 4.2% economists were expecting for the period, but still a big jump from quarter to quarter.
Additionally, the first quarter GDP growth estimate was revised to 2.2% from 2%. Economic growth in the second quarter was the most robust the U.S. has experienced in nearly four years.
Several indicators prior to Friday's release suggested soft second-quarter GDP expectations, including a Commerce Department report Thursday that new orders for durable goods increased at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1% in June, short of the 3% gain economists were expecting.
The Commerce Department also reported that the U.S. trade deficit in goods expanded 5.5% in June as imports rose and exports fell during the quarter.
Premarket
U.S. futures are rising across the board Friday, as were the majority of major world markets, as trade tensions ease and earnings season continues through the thick of second-quarter releases.
Dow futures are up 0.11%, or 27 points indicating an open at 25,552, while S&P futures were up 0.04%, indicating an open 1 point higher to 2,844, and Nasdaq futures were up 0.17%, indicating an open 13 points higher.
Markets in Asia were mixed with the Shanghai Composite declining 0.3%, while the Hang Seng and Nikkei gained 0.08% and 0.56% respectively.
In Europe, the CAC 40 gained 0.34%, the DAX rose 0.5% and the FTSE 100 rose 0.43%.
