US Close 24 Oct 16: Merger news and strong results reduced losses on the U.S. Markets n Friday.

US sharemarkets were mixed on Friday. After releasing earnings results, shares in Microsoft rose by 4.3% with McDonald's up 3%. According to Thomson Reuters 23% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings and the expectation is that annual earnings growth was 1.1%, up from the estimate of +0.5% at the start of the earnings season. The Dow Jones index ended lower by almost 17 points or 0.1%. The S&P 500 index fell by less than 0.1% while the Nasdaq lifted by almost 16 points or 0.3%. Over the week the Dow rose by less than 0.1%, the S&P 500 rose by 0.4% and the Nasdaq gained 0.8%. Over the weekend, AT&T said it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $US85.4 billion (A$112 billion). 

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