NEW YORK: A disappointing quarterly report from Chevron and a lower-than-expected US economic growth report for the fourth quarter kept a lid on US markets Friday.
Chevron pulled down the Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue chips, with the index ending off 68.27 points (0.54 percent) to 12,666.36.
The broader S&P 500 made a late-session climb to finish barely in the red, down 1.74 (0.13 percent) to 1,316.69.
But the Nasdaq kept its head above water, helped by a report that Facebook could finally make a move next week to go public. The tech-heavy index finished up 10.97 (0.39 percent) at 2,816.25.
The Commerce Department said economic growth in the last quarter of 2011 picked up to a 2.8 percent annual pace from 1.8 percent the previous quarter, well below average forecasts of 3.2 percent.
"Muddling through is the best term that can be applied to the current economic environment, even though the risks of a downturn have been reduced," Steven Ricchiuto of Mizuho Securities said in an analysis of the data.
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