NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks were off to another weak start Friday after the Bank of Japan disappointed investors with stimulus plans that didn’t go as far as many had hoped. Investors got another mixed batch of corporate earnings, this time from Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, and oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average lost 72 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,384 as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,165 and the Nasdaq composite fell 5 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,149.
JAPAN SURPRISE: Japan’s central bank ended a policy meeting Friday by announcing it will expand purchases of exchange traded funds from financial institutions to help inject more cash into the world’s third-largest economy and pursue its 2 percent inflation target. But the measures fell short of hopes for more aggressive action. That helped the yen surge as investors priced in fewer yen in circulation. The dollar dropped to 102.65 yen from 105.45 yen.
OIL WEAKNESS: Exxon Mobil fell 3 percent and Chevron lost 1 percent after both companies reported steep drops in quarterly earnings due to low oil prices. Exxon Mobile had its smallest quarterly profit in 17 years, well below what analysts were looking for. Chevron fared slightly better. While earnings dropped sharply from a year ago, Chevron’s results still beat analysts’ expectations. Exxon fell $2.55 to $87.69 and Chevron fell $1.14 to $100.65.
A-B-C: Alphabet, the parent company of Google, jumped $32.23, or 4 percent, to $797.35. The company reported earnings of $8.42 a share, well above the $8.04 that analysts were looking for.
STRONG SALES: Amazon shares rose $7.58, or 1 percent to $759.86. The online retail giant reported a profit of $1.78 per share, well above the $1.11 a share that analysts expected. Amazon reported it sold $30.4 billion in goods in the quarter, up 31 percent from a year earlier.
OIL: In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 39 cents to $40.75 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 54 cents to $42.69 a barrel in London.
BONDS, CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note falling to 1.48 percent from 1.51 percent the day before. The euro rose to $1.1167 from $1.1073.