It was deja vu all over again as US markets sought direction at the outset.
The Dow Jones industrial average opted to head higher, rising five points to 17,413, but the broader-based S&P 500 was off a point at 2,082 while the Nasdaq Composite shed 11 points at 5,023.
U.S. producer prices for July offered some encouragement for the bulls, rising for the third straight month.
Producer prices climbed 0.2% in July, after rising 0.4% the month before. Economists had predicted a rise of 0.1%.
The Dow was supported by energy stocks such as ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) opening on the front foot as the price of West Texas Intermediate recovered from a six-and-a-half year low.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was also wanted after it took GE's online deposit business off the industrial holding company's hands in a US$16bn deal.
The transaction includes US$8bn in online deposit accounts and US$8bn in certificates of deposit, Goldman Sachs said.
GE is in the process of selling off its finance arm, GE Capital, bit by bit as it looks to simplify the business and focus on industrial activities.
The deal was announced yesterday, and both stocks advanced this morning, with Goldman Sachs up 0.8% to US$202.29 and General Electric (NYSE:GE) up 0.3% at US$25.86.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) was friendless, however, after it lowered revenue guidance for the final quarter of its fiscal year.
The company reported a 10% year-on-year rise in fiscal third quarter revenue to US$2.49bn late on Thursday and a 17% hike in orders for new equipment, but analysts had expected a higher revenue number, in the region of US$2.54bn.
King Digital Entertainment (NYSE:KING) lost one-tenth of its value as the market found quarterly financials were far from regal.
The mobile games maker is still struggling to follow up the huge success of Candy Crush, which still generates about 40% of group revenue three years after its launch.
During the period King had two new launches, the AlphaBetty Saga word game and a new ‘sim’ game called Paradise Bay.
At US$490mln revenue was down more than 15% compared to the same period of 2014, and second quarter profit fell to US$119mln from US$165mln last year.
In contrast, Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), the largest US luxury department-store chain, advanced more than 6%, a day after it forecast fiscal full-year earnings above Wall Street’s projections, aided by growing sales.
Earnings per share are projected to be $3.85 to $3.95 in the fiscal year ending January 30, the Seattle, Washington-based company said in a statement on Thursday. That’s up from its previous guidance of $3.65 to $3.80 per share, and surpasses the analysts’ $3.75 average estimate, according to Capital IQ.