Stocks Slightly Lower at the Open

U.S. stocks opened slightly lower on Friday, after a rally late in Thursday’s session pushed U.S. benchmarks to their best gains in two weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately shed 59.60 points, or 0.33%, to 17,754.38. The S&P 500 fell 6.09 points, or 0.30%, to 2,057.06. The Nasdaq Composite added 5.00 points, or 0.11%, to 4,755.39.

McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N) reported a smaller-than-expected fall in U.S. and global same-restaurant sales and announced its lowest capital spending budget in more than five years, saying it planned to open fewer restaurants in its troubled markets. Sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months fell 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter. Global same-restaurant sales fell 0.9 percent compared with average analyst estimate of a 1.5 percent fall.

General Electric Co reported a 9 percent rise in quarterly industrial profit on Friday as its businesses that sell power-generating turbines and jet engines helped offset weak sales in its oil and gas unit. The U.S. conglomerate said its fourth-quarter net income rose 61 percent to $5.15 billion, or 51 cents per share, from a year earlier.

UPS disclosed on Friday morning that it expected its fourth-quarter earnings to widely miss expectations. UPS said it expected adjusted earnings per share to total $1.25 in the fourth quarter, missing Wall Street’s expectations for earnings of $1.47, with UPS attributing this earnings miss to “underperformance” from its US domestic segment.