Stocks Opened Slightly Higher

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher on Friday, as investors assessed the final revision to the fourth-quarter GDP, which remained unchanged at 2.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately gained 5.09 points, or 0.03%, to 17,683.32. The S&P 500 was up 2.12 points, o 0.10%, to 2,058.27. The Nasdaq Composite added 18.02 points, or 0.37%, to 4,881.38.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the October-December period — a figure that was unchanged from a month ago. The economy had surged at a 5 percent rate in the third quarter.

Consumers in the waning months of 2014 spent the most on services including health care in 14 years and exports were also stronger, but companies built inventories at a slower pace than originally reported to keep fourth- quarter U.S. growth at 2.2%.

Crude-oil futures fell by about 2% in Asian trade Friday on some profit-taking, but prices are still supported by the escalating conflict in Yemen. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $50.28 a barrel, down $1.16, or 2.2%.

BlackBerry Ltd. on Friday reported a surprise quarterly profit but revenue fell well short of expectations, a sign the company’s cost-cutting efforts are paying off but that it has yet to see the full benefit of sales of new security software and smartphones. The Canadian smartphone maker’s revenue fell to $660 million in the fiscal fourth quarter from $976 million a year earlier.