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 Healthcare shares were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500,
including U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc <PFE.N>. Its shares fell 1.3
percent to $30.75 after its sweetened bid for AstraZeneca Plc
<AZN.L> was rejected.
Adding to market pressure, more than 40 people were killed in the
Ukrainian city of Odessa on Friday in the worst violence in the
Black Sea port since President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in
February.
"Geopolitical tension has come back into the market. You're going
into a weekend and obviously events can unfold, so you've got
profit-taking," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential
Financial, in Newark, New Jersey.
All three major indexes posted gains for the week. The Dow was up
0.9 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq added 1.2
percent.
Oil prices rose on the Ukraine violence, lifting shares of Exxon
Mobil <XOM.N> and other energy companies, which limited some of the
S&P 500's decline.
Before the opening, data showed U.S. job growth picked up at its
fastest pace in more than two years in April, suggesting a sharp
rebound in economic activity early in the second quarter. The news
was dampened by a sharp increase in people dropping out of the labor
force, however.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 45.98 points or 0.28
percent, to 16,512.89, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 2.54 points or 0.13
percent, to 1,881.14 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 3.554
points or 0.09 percent, to 4,123.897.
LinkedIn Corp <LNKD.N> shares dropped 8.4 percent to $147.73, a day
after the social networking company forecast 2014 revenue below
expectations, the latest company to disappoint on sales this
reporting period. Expedia <EXPE.O> shares fell 3.7 percent to
$71.15, also after results.
So far in this earnings season, 75 percent of companies have beaten
earnings expectations, above the 63 percent long-term average. But
just 51.3 percent have exceeded sales expectations, below the 61
percent long-term average, continuing the recent trend, Thomson
Reuters data showed.
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Shares of Exxon, which reported results this week along with
ConocoPhillips <COP.N> and Chevron <CVX.N>, were up 0.6 percent at
$102.01. Shares of ConocoPhillips gained 2 percent to $76.52 while
the stock of Chevron, which posted a lower-than-expected quarterly
profit on Friday, dipped 0.2 percent to $124.72.
The S&P 500 healthcare sector <.SPXHC>, down 0.8 percent, was among
the day's weakest sectors. Several multi-billion dollar deals and
offers have been announced in the sector in recent weeks.
The Pfizer news "certainly has been a catalyst for profit-taking on
big pharma," Krosby said.
Shares of Ares Management LP <ARES.N>, the first U.S. private equity
firm to go public in about two years, closed at $18.60 after pricing
at $19, well below the expected range of $21-23, in a turbulent IPO
market.
About 5.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the
6.7 billion average over the past five days, according to data from
BATS Global Markets.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)
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