Stocks close down after five-day winning streak

U.S. stocks closed down Friday, ending a five-session winning streak that had pulled two key equity averages out of correction territory.

Despite the negative closing, all three major stock averages ended the week higher: The Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.4 percent; the S&P 500 up 2.54 percent and the Nasdaq Composite up 3.45 percent.

In addition, all three averages booked their third week of gains.

A number of investors Friday decided to use gains in the last five days to book profits as they await the beginning of earnings season.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
APC n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
CXO n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
HES HESS CORP. 152.64 +2.09 +1.39%

Energy shares hurt the market.

Crude oil prices, which have been climbing for the last nine trading days, fell and dragged down the share prices of energy companies heavily involved in exploration and production. The price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, declined 1.6 percent to $51.76 in afternoon trading.

American equities also appeared caught in a downdraft of European stocks. London’s FTSE traded down 0.5 percent, Germany’s DAX fell 0.8 percent and France’s CAC was off 0.9 percent.

On the other hand, General Motors said on Friday that its decision to cut 15 percent of its North American workforce and halt production at several plants could contribute between $2 billion and $2.5 billion to profits this year. The largest American automaker also strengthened its earnings guidance to between $4.5 billion to $6 billion, while it said per share profits could be $6.50 to $7 -- exceeding Wall Street’s $5.86 forecast, according to Refinitiv.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 39807.37 +47.29 +0.12%
SP500 S&P 500 5254.35 +5.86 +0.11%
I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 16379.458265 -20.06 -0.12%

GM shares closed up 7 percent.

Asian bourses did well: China’s shanghai Composite up 0.74 percent.

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Hong Kong’s hang Seng finished the day higher by 0.55 percent,

Japan’s Nikkei closed the session with a 1 percent gain. up 0.97 percent. For the week, it added 4.1 percent.

FOX Business' Ken Martin contributed to this report.