Investing.com – Wall Street opened flat on Friday, as upbeat earnings were offset by concerns about slowing global growth.
The Dow lost 28 points or 0.1% by 9:54 AM ET (13:54 GMT), while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite were flat.
Traders were keeping a close watch on trade developments after China’s gross domestic product grew 6% annually in the third quarter, which was the slowest rate in nearly 30 years. The news comes on the back of China trying to get more concessions from the U.S. before it signs a temporary phase-1 deal agreed on last week.
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) gained 2% after posting organic sales growth of 5% in the third quarter, which was better than expected. E-Trade jumped 4.4% on strong earnings, while State Street (NYSE:STT) was up 2.1% after beating Wall Street estimates for the quarter.
Elsewhere, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slumped 2.2% while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was down 0.8% after it said it will charge a $100 non-refundable fee for any orders. The company had previously required a refundable $1,000 reservation fee and $2,500 order deposit.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 3.4% after it recalled a lot of baby powder on trace levels of asbestos. The company was subpoenaed earlier this year for documents related to the safety of its baby power and other talc products and has been facing thousands of lawsuits alleging the product causes cancer.
In commodities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 97.208 and gold futures lost 0.2% to $1,494.25 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures gained 0.8% to $54.37 a barrel.