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NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks recovered on Friday from losses stemming from government data showing a slowdown in the US economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 1.22 points (0.01 percent) to 10,465.94 in final trades after criss-crossing positive and negative territories.
The blue chip index fell one percent immediately after the Commerce Department reported that US economic growth declined to 2.4 percent in the second quarter from a upwardly revised 3.7 percent in the first three months of the year.
But it erased nearly all the losses at the closing bell after separate economic reports showed better-than-expected readings of consumer sentiment and Chicago-area business activity.
The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index rose 3.01 points (0.13 percent) to 2,254.70 while the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.07 point (0.01 percent) at 1,101.60.
US stocks opened "under pressure following the first look" at the latest gross domestic product growth figure, analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a report.
"The equity market pared a large majority of early losses... as better-than-expected reports on consumer sentiment and Midwest manufacturing activity are helping the bulls show some resilience," they said.
Government revisions on previous quarter GDP data showed that the recession that struck in December 2007 was deeper than previously thought, with the worst economic contraction at 6.8 percent in the final quarter of 2008.
"The US economic recovery continues, but growth is soft, and there are concerns about the durability of the expansion over the next few quarters," said Augustine Faucher, director of macroeconomics for Moody's Economy.com.
"Growth will remain weak until demand fundamentals start to improve toward the end of this year," he said.
Stock investors heaved a sigh of relief after the final University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for July increased by a larger amount than initially reported in the preliminary release.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago also said its business barometer rose to 62.3 points this month. Readings higher than 50 signal growth.
Among stocks in focus was Chevron, which rose 0.25 percent to 76.21 dollars after its second-quarter profits trebled to 5.4 billion dollars from a year ago.
Drugmaker Merck slumped 1.71 percent to 34.46 dollars as it reported a 52 percent drop in second-quarter net income.
Amgen gained 2.17 percent to 54.53 dollars as the world's largest biotechnology company notched a better-than-expected second-quarter profit.
The bond market rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 2.907 percent from 2.999 percent on Thursday while that on the 30-year bond slipped to 3.977 percent from 4.080 percent. Bond yield and prices move in opposite directions.
- AFP/de
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