NEW YORK (AP) — Stock indexes are mixed Friday morning as traders return from the Thanksgiving holiday. Energy stocks fell as the price of oil turned lower. Disney lost ground after reporting declining subscriber numbers for ESPN.
THE EARLY SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slid eight points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,804 as of 11:08 a.m. Eastern time. Earlier the Dow fell as much as 64 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose two points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,090. The Nasdaq composite added eight points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,124.
U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will close at 1 p.m. on Friday.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 91 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $42.13 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gave up 49 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $44.97 a barrel in London.
Energy stocks followed the price of oil lower. Consol Energy lost 43 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $7.57 and Southwestern Energy gave up 48 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $8.94.
DISNEY DOWN: Late Wednesday, Disney disclosed that U.S. subscribers to its ESPN sports channel fell for the second year in a row. Disney said ESPN had 92 million subscribers as of Oct. 3, matching its lowest total since 2006. ESPN’s subscriber totals had hovered around 100 million for years. Disney fell $4.81, or 4.1 percent, to $113.86.
Small but growing numbers of people are skipping on traditional cable bundles and buying smaller, less expensive groups of channels instead. Investors in media companies are worried about potential losses of subscribers and revenue.
VIACOM SKIDS: A dispute over the health of media mogul Sumner Redstone hit Viacom’s stock. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Manuela Herzer, Redstone’s former companion, said the 92-year-old Redstone can’t make informed decisions anymore and needs medical care at all times. Redstone, who holds almost all of the voting power in Viacom as well as CBS, said he is in good spirits and able to make decisions.
Class B shares of Viacom fell $1.84, or 3.5 percent, to $50.51
STILL RISING: Hewlett Packard Enterprise didn’t miss a beat over the holiday break, adding 39 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $14.51. The technology services company, formerly a component of Hewlett-Packard, saw an increase in sales of data-center hardware during the fourth quarter. Its shares rose 3 percent Wednesday.
BLACK FRIDAY: Today is Black Friday, a much-hyped shopping day when millions of Americans will hit the stores in search of bargains. Trading in retail stocks was quiet early in the day. Target rose 20 cents to $73.36 and Wal-Mart Stores dipped 22 cents to $60.02 Amazon.com stock rose fell $1.85 to $673.49.
EUROPE STOCKS: France’s CAC 40 fell 0.3 percent and Germany’s DAX fell 0.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.3 percent.
CHINA PROBE: China’s Shanghai Composite index had its worst day in three months on reports that two major Chinese brokerages are under investigation for possible violation of securities market rules. A string of Chinese securities executives have been detained or questioned following a plunge in share prices that began in early June.
The Shanghai Composite sank 5.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.9 percent.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.21 percent from 2.24 percent late Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.0593 from $1.0617 and dollar rose to 122.78 yen from 122.72 yen.
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Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP. His work can be found at http://ift.tt/1N05ciE.
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