NEW YORK — Concerns about growth led U.S. stocks to finish with a whimper on Friday and for the week but still failed to dent much of the market’s strong gains in July.
The government earlier reported a slowdown in second-quarter growth, though much of the impact on the market was curbed by other reports showing a slight improvement in consumer sentiment and in Chicago-area business activity.
The Dow Jones industrial average reversed an early 120-point loss to close down 1.22 points, or 0.01 percent, at 10,465.94 — the first positive month for U.S. stocks since April and the best month since July 2009, when stocks were in the midst of a 70 percent bull run.
The gains have come as a strong set of second-quarter earnings provided a big source of encouragement to investors after they spent much of May and June fretting over the impact of euro-zone debt troubles and China’s efforts to put the brakes on its growth.
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.01 percent Friday to finish at 1,101.60, just above the psychologically important 1,100 level. It’s up 6.9 percent this July. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, gained 0.13 percent to end at 2,254.70, also up 6.9 percent for the month.
“This month, it has been a good reprieve from the past two months,” said Wasif Latif, vice president of equity investments at USAA Investment Management. “The fact that the economic data have been mixed and not all negative wholesale is probably a positive. What a sigh of relief that we may not be double-dipping.”
With 70 percent of the S&P 500’s companies having reported through Thursday, earnings are now estimated to total $19.26 a share, up 42 percent from $13.51 share a year ago, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P. Sales are up 9 percent, and profit margins are sitting at 9.7 percent.
Still, July’s gains have come on thin volume, a sign there may be less conviction behind the rise.
Mike O’Rourke, strategist at brokerage firm BTIG, said investors were cheered by the strong corporate numbers as well as by tepid signs of the recovering economy.
Still, he said many were concerned about the volatility in July.
