Stocks are mixed on Friday, with the Nasdaq trading at all-time highs, and the Dow falling nearly 100 points. Near 10:50 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 75 points, the S&P 500 was down two points, and the Nasdaq was up 28 points. The Nasdaq breached its closing peak reached Thursday to trade at a new intra-day high of up to 5,197.61 points today. Gold is tanking, and this morning, it fell to a five-year low. The precious metal fell more than 1% to as low as $1,129.80 an ounce. Earlier Friday, China disclosed its gold holdings for the first time in six years. Its reserves rose 57%, and it's now the fifth-largest holder of gold, eking out Russia, according to Bloomberg. Google shares are up 14% – a market cap addition of nearly $50 billion – after the company posted better-than-expected earnings, with revenues that slightly missed forecasts. Economic data out this morning has been mixed. Housing starts jumped to the highest level since 2007 in July, rising 9.8% at an annualized pace of 1.174 million, and beating forecasts. Building permits rose 7.4% at an annualized pace of 1.343 million, well ahead of estimates. The preliminary reading of consumer sentiment for July from the University of Michigan came in at 93.3, missing the forecast for 96. "The small loss in early July reflected a slight rise in concerns about international developments [such as the situation in Greece] which was partially offset by continued news of job gains," said Richard Curtin, the survey's chief economist, in the release. At 1:00 p.m ET, we'll get the latest count of US oil and gas rigs from driller Baker Hughes. The oil rig count has been positive back-to-back for the past two weeks for the first time this year. Oil prices are headed for the third weekly decline in a row; West Texas intermediate crude futures to fell as low as $50.16 a barrel today. Join the conversation about this story »
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