A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday, Oct. 24Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
U.S. stocks declined in a volatile session on Friday but were able to partially recover from a sharp drop spurred by news the FBI will review more emails related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email use.
Each of the three major indexes on Wall Street fell to session lows, with the S&P 500 dropping 1 percent in an hour, after FBI Director James Comey said in a letter to several congressional Republicans the agency had learned of the existence of emails that appeared to be pertinent to its investigation. The U.S. election is scheduled to take place in 11 days, on Nov. 8.
"The headline hit, everyone panicked for a second that it was going to affect the outcome of the election," said Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco.
The benchmark S&P 500 index fell as much as 0.6 percent on the session, hitting a low of 2,119.36 before recovering.
"People calmed down and considered what it really meant, that in all likelihood it really isn't going to impact the election," Massocca said.
Earlier in the session, the S&P 500 had risen as much as 0.4 percent after economic data showed the U.S. economy grew 2.9 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years, and upbeat earnings from Google parent company Alphabet Inc .
Alphabet shares were up 0.3 percent at $819.56.
While the economic data supported the case for an interest rate hike, the Federal Reserve is unlikely to make a move at its meeting next week, as it falls just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Many market participants are instead expecting a rate hike in December.
Investors also digested the latest wave of earnings reports with the hope the quarter snaps a year-long earnings recession.
Nearly 73 percent of the S&P 500 companies that reported have topped Wall Street expectations, with growth for the quarter now expected to be 3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The quarter had been expected to show a decline of 0.5 percent at the start of October.
On the negative side, Amazon.com suffered its worst day in nearly nine months, down 5.2 percent to $776.32 after the online retailer warned heavy investments in the crucial holiday quarter would hurt profits. The stock was the top drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 8.29 points, or 0.05 percent, to 18,161.39, the S&P 500 lost 6.6 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,126.44 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 25.87 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,190.10.
For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1.3 percent, while the Dow managed a 0.1 percent gain.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.49-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.41-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 45 new highs and 129 new lows.
About 7.31 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.34 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
Canadian stocks
Canada's main stock index fell on Friday, with a drop in oil prices weighing on energy stocks and heavyweight financial names also slipping as investors worried about the country's growth prospects.
The index shed 1 percent on the week, after closing last week at a 16-month high.
"There's still concern over weak growth in Canada," said Bryden Teich, portfolio manager at Avenue Investment Management. "You're seeing a little bit of a pause."
He said investor unease was brought into focus by the Bank of Canada last week saying it had actively discussed adding more monetary stimulus to speed up economic recovery.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index settled down 48.46 points, or 0.33 percent, at 14,785.29.
The index's energy group lost 1.3 percent, with Cenovus Energy down 3.3 percent at C$20.03 and pipeline operator Enbridge Inc off 1.2 percent at C$58.37.
"It's been a mixed bag for energy earnings, and it's still wait and see until what happens at the end of November with the OPEC decision (on oil production), but near-term you do have a floor for oil prices," Teich said.
Imperial Oil Ltd fell 3.3 percent to C$43.38, even as its quarterly profit beat the consensus forecast on lower costs.
Oil prices settled below $50 and marked their biggest weekly loss in six weeks on concerns OPEC will not fully carry out a planned output cut, even as data showed U.S. oil drillers removed rigs from production for the first time since June.
Heavyweight bank stocks fell, with Bank of Montreal down 0.9 percent to C$85.35 after announcing a shakeup of its senior management team.
Colliers International Group Inc fell 9.8 percent to C$47.81 after the commercial real estate company's quarterly profit and revenue missed expectations.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc slumped 7.9 percent to C$27.21.
The most influential gainer on the index was Barrick Gold Corp, which rose 1.5 percent to C$22.89. The world's biggest gold miner is in talks with two Chinese companies about potential deals involving some of its South American operations.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.5 percent.
Trucking and logistics company Transforce Inc jumped 9 percent to C$29.60 after it said it would buy the truckload operations of XPO Logistics Inc.
Seven of the index's 10 main groups ended in positive territory, although decliners outnumbered gainers by 1.35-to-1.