Stocks Ended Little Changed, Nasdaq Extended Winning Streak

U.S. stocks ended little changed on Thursday, with the Nasdaq extended its winning streak to close at a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28.97 points, or 0.13%, to 21,611.78. The S&P 500 was down 0.38 point, or 0.02% to 2,473.45. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4.96 points, or 0.08%, to 6,390.00.

Oil pulled back Thursday, a day after a third consecutive weekly declines in U.S. crude supplies lifted prices to a six-week high. The August contract for West Texas Intermediate crude fell 33 cents, or 0.7%, to finish at $46.79 a barrel.
September Brent lost 40 cents, or 0.8%, to $49.30 a barrel.

Microsoft Corp reported a quarterly profit that more than doubled, helped by a tax benefit and strong growth in its cloud business. The company’s net income rose to $6.51 billion, or 83 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended June 30 from $3.12 billion, or 39 cents per share, a year earlier.

EBay Inc on Thursday reported a nearly 94 percent fall in quarterly profit, hurt by higher expenses as well as income tax provisions. Net income fell to $27 million, or 2 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $435 million, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier.

Payments processor Visa Inc’s quarterly revenue jumped nearly 26 percent as more people made payments using its network. Net income rose to $2.06 billion, or 86 cents per Class A share in the third quarter, from $412 million, or 17 cents per Class A share.