Midnight Trader | Apr 26, 2013 04:08PM ET
Stocks closed mixed, with a late rally lifting blue-chips to a small gain while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished little changed. Stocks labored much of the day after a government report found the U.S. economy did not grow as quickly as expected in Q1 while another survey showed a drop in consumer confidence this month. Most industry sectors also finished little changed, although metal and materials stocks tumbled hard as prices for raw goods fell on demand worries triggered by today's gross domestic product figures. Shares of financial companies also declined.
Early Tick Down
The markets began drifting lower soon after the Commerce Department reported U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, rebounding from a 0.4% rise in Q4 but still lagging expert opinion looking for 3.0% growth in the quarter.
Outside of government spending, most sectors of the U.S. economy expanded during the first three months of 2013, including a 3.2% year over year increase in consumer spending. But economists cautioned much of that growth came at the expense of savings, increasing the likelihood of future slowdowns. Part of the pick-up in activity also reflected farmers' filling up silos after last summer's drought. If inventories are removed, GDP growth for the quarter was just 1.5%.
U.S. Consumer Sentiment
A separate report also weighed on stocks, with the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index on consumer sentiment sliding to a final 76.4 reading for April, down from last month's 78.6 mark. The April reading was a three-month low, reflecting less optimism for the U.S. economy, although the 2.4-point slide was not as large as the 5.1-point decline experts in a Bloomberg survey had been expecting.
Commodities ended mostly lower, although gold traded higher most of the session on dollar weakness following the Q1 GDP report. Crude oil for June delivery settled 64 cents lower at $93.00 per barrel. May natural gas was down 2 cents to $4.15 per 1 million BTU. June gold reversed course late, ending $8.20 lower at $1,453.60 per ounce while May silver slipped 38 cents to finish at $23.76 per ounce. May copper was down 5 cents to $3.19 per pound.
Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End
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