US stocks dip as North Korea anxiety hits sentiment

New York - Wall Street stocks finished lower on Friday as nervousness about North Korea and other geopolitical hotspots offset positive momentum from a batch of mostly strong corporate earnings.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, said investors were reluctant to commit additional funds ahead of the weekend, much like last week, when skittishness ahead of the French presidential election depressed equities.

"It's very typical of the last three or four weeks. Friday afternoon seems to be the unwind day," he said. "By that, I mean no one wants to take a big bet when you're heading into the weekend."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2% to end the week at 20 940.51.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2% to close at 2 384.20, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost a hair to finish at 6 047.61, retreating from a record.

Google parent Alphabet jumped 3.6% after reporting a 29% jump in quarterly profit to $5.4bn. Ad revenues rose and did not appear to show any effects from an ad boycott of YouTube earlier this year after revelations that ads were placed alongside videos showing hateful content.

Intel dropped 3.4% despite reporting first-quarter net income rose 44% to $3.0bn, as analysts were disappointed in the growth in some businesses, such as its data center group.

Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron rose 0.5% and 1.2%, respectively, after the companies reported sharply improved quarterly results due to higher oil prices.

Among others reporting earnings, companies experiencing large share moves were Expedia, down 1.8%, Starbucks, down 2.0%, and Western Digital, up 3.9%.