Stocks End Mixed, Microsoft Plunges 11%

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday, influenced in part by weak earnings out of the tech sector. The Dow industrials dropped 4.80 points, or 0.03%, to 15,543.74, with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) down more than 11%. For the week, the Dow gained 0.5%.  The S&P 500 index eked out small gains to end up 2.72 points, or 0.2%, at 1,692.09. For the week, it gained 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 23.66 points, or 0.7%, to end at 3,587.61, leaving it down 0.4% for the week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the city of Miami and its former budget director with fraud on Friday, for allegedly making misleading statements and omissions in bond documents in order to mask general fund deficits.

State’s attorney general disagrees, is appealing. reinventing detroit. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, left, and Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevin Orr, address Detroit’s bankruptcy filing at a news conference July 19, 2013, in Detroit.

GE posts small gain in profit, sees U.S. pickup. GE’s net income rose 6% in the first half of the year, and the improved outlook raised hopes of even better growth in the second half.

Some of the world’s richest economies for the first time endorsed a blueprint on Friday to curb widely used tax avoidance strategies that allow some multinational corporations to pay only a pittance in income taxes.