US stocks diverged at the close

New York-Sana

The performance of US stock indices varied at the close today, as the Nasdaq Composite and Standard & Poor's 500 indices declined, and a number of banks announced strong profits at the beginning of the results season.

Reuters reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.87 points, equivalent to 0.16 percent, to 33,732.14 points, while Standard & Poor's lost 16.75 points, or 0,40 percent, to score 4,124.84 points.

The Nasdaq fell 138.26 points, or 0.99 percent, to 13,857.84 points.

Shares in Goldman Sachs and Walls Fargo rose thanks to strong first-quarter earnings. Goldman benefited from unprecedented global deal activity, and Wells trimmed bad loan allocations and controlled costs associated with settling a scandal in sales practices.

But JPMorgan shares fell, despite the rise in profits of the largest US bank by nearly 400 percent.