NEW YORK CITY: US stocks closed mostly lower Friday after a three-day rally, ith shares of BlackBerry hammered as the struggling phone maker reported a surprise quarterly loss.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 114.89 points (0.76 percent) at 14,909.60.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost 6.92 points (0.43 percent) at 1,606.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 1.38 (0.04 percent) to 3,403.25.
"US equity markets finished mixed, concluding the best first half performance in the Dow since 1999, as traders grappled with a plethora of disappointing corporate earnings releases and a larger-than-anticipated decline in regional manufacturing activity," Charles Schwab & Co. said in a market note.
The muddled close followed a three-day rally as worries eased that the Federal Reserve could move to tighten monetary policy sooner than had been expected.
In a coordinated effort, several Fed officials over the past two days stressed in speeches and briefings that markets had over-reacted to last week's Fed announcement that it could begin tapering its stimulus program later this year.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion shares took a heavy hit, plunging falling 27.8 percent to $10.46 after turning in a surprise $84 million loss for the quarter to June 1, despite a pickup in revenues from the launch of the company's new smartphone.
Nike raced 2.2 percent higher after earnings beat estimates.
Shares of Biogen Idec, which makes drug therapies, jumped 3.1 percent, helped by an upgrade to buy from Citigroup.
Management consultant and outsourcing specialist Accenture lost 10.3 percent after reporting lower-than expected revenues in its fiscal third quarter and cutting its revenue outlook for 2013.
Dow members IBM and Cisco Systems fell, by 2.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Pfizer fell 0.6 percent after announcing a $10 billion share buyback program.
Bond prices were mixed after two days of gains. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was 2.48 percent, unchanged from Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.50 percent from 3.55 percent. Bond prices move inversely to yields.
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