S&P 500 Edges Higher Ahead Of Big Earnings, Market Volatility Decreases

The S&P 500 closed slightly higher on Friday following mixed earnings reports from major companies.

The Procter & Gamble Company PG reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. FCX shares dropped over 4% after the company reported a first-quarter FY23 revenue decline of 18.4% year-over-year to $5.39 billion.

Some big names, including, Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Alphabet Inc. GOOGL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN are scheduled to release earnings reports next week.

On the economic data front, the S&P Global US manufacturing PMI rose to 50.4 in April from 49.2 in the previous month, beating market estimates of 49, while services PMI rose to 53.7 in April from 52.6 in the previous month.

Major sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with consumer discretionary and consumer staples stocks recording the biggest gains on Friday. However, materials and energy closed lower during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.11% to close at 13,000.77 on Friday, amid gains in shares of Tesla Inc TSLA and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

The S&P 500 rose 0.09%, while the Dow Jones added 0.07% to 33,808.96 in the previous session. For the week, the S&P 500 lost 0.1%, with the Dow dropping 0.2%

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 2.3% to close at 16.77 on Friday.

What is CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as VIX, is a measure of the equity market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index call and put options.

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