Friday's Stock Market Open: Stocks Mixed On 3Q Earnings, Brexit Uncertainty

Investors turned away concerns over Amazon’s third-quarter results and fourth-quarter predictions Friday as well as worries about Brexit.

In early afternoon tradint, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 180 points at 26,986 while the Nasdaq Composite added 52 points to 8,238 and the S&P 500 picked up 13 points to 3,023.

Amazon ( AMZN ) missed earnings estimates in third-quarter results issued shortly after market close Thursday. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported efforts to ramp up one-day delivery for the Christmas season would impact its bottom line. Amazon said its profits were off 26% from last year, the first decline since 2017.

Goodyear Friday reported a 3% decline in sales for the third quarter, down to $3.8 billion, largely due to foreign exchange rates. Net income was $88 million or 38 cents a share, down from $351 million or $1.48 a share in the year ago quarter.

Phillips 66 reported third-quarter earnings of $712 million or $1.58 per share, compared with $1.49 billion or $3.18 a share in the third quarter of 2018.

Brexit’s fate again was in question as the Labour party pushed back on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s effort to call an election for Dec. 12. The European Union is debating how long an extension to grant the United Kingdom now that it’s clear it won’t meet the Oct. 31 deadline for divorcing from the economic alliance.

Parliament earlier this week voted to approve the agreement Johnson worked out with the EU but then balked at the expedited timetable Johnson sought for final approval.

France is pushing for a short extension while other EU members were leaning toward three months, which would push the deadline to Jan. 31. Members met in Brussels Friday but decided to push a final decision into next week after the British Parliament votes on a general election.

Global markets were mixed. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.49% lower while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.22% and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.48%. Australia’s S&P/ASX was up 0.68%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 closed off 0.05% while the German DAX gained 0.17% the French CAC was up 0.67%. The Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.36%.

The British pound was off 0.26% to $1.2818 while the euro slipped 0.25% to $1.1076 and the U.S. dollar index gained 0.26%.

Oil futures were mixed. Crude oil lost 0.05% to $56.26 a barrel while Brent crude slipped 0.32% to $61.48. Gold and silver were higher.