STOCKS FINISH MIXED: Here's what you need to know

pulse

July 31, 2017 9:25 PM

Stocks finished mixed as earnings season pressed on amid gradually improving economic data.

null

The S&P 500 was little changed, while the Dow gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq lost 0.4%. The Nasdaq, heavily weighted toward mega-cap tech stocks, proved once again that it's capable of having a mind of its own in going against the broader indices.

Meanwhile, recently-IPOed social media startup Snap had a volatile first day of trading following the expiration of its first post-offering share lock-up.

First up, the scoreboard:

Dow:
S&P 500:
Nasdaq:
US 10-year yield:
WTI crude oil:

1. Snap's day of reckoning arrived. The company's post-IPO share lock-up expired, making 400 million shares owned by early investors eligible for open-market trading.

2. Goldman Sachs said investors should buy stock in the companies spending the least on employee pay. A group of companies that spend the least on employee pay has outpaced a basket of high-labor cost stocks by 13 percentage points over the past year, the most since 2010.

3. A key short-term boost for stocks has vanished for the first time in 17 years. Traders have not been this unresponsive to earnings announcements in nearly two decades.

4. Tesla fell after debuting the Model 3. The electric automaker revealed details of the new Model 3 and its production process in an event on Friday.

5. Bitcoin was volatile ahead of Tuesday's big decision. Core developers and miners are set to decide whether bitcoin remains as is or whether there will be a hard fork that splinters the cryptocurrency.

ADDITIONALLY:

Discovery is buying Scripps Networks Interactive for $14.6 billion

WALL STREET PAYDAY: Banks could reap $100 million from the Discovery-Scripps deal

Bitcoin's 'civil war' probably won't impact Nvidia and AMD — no matter of who wins

Bitcoin will likely split into 2 — and it's all because of bitcoin cash

Bitcoin's civil war could cause a 'fork' — here's what that means

Here's how each state's economy did in the first 3 months of this year

pulse