North American stocks dipped into the red at the start of trading on Friday, weighed down by a round of disappointing earnings from U.S. blue chip companies.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 47 points or 0.4 per cent, to 12,687. The broader S&P 500 fell 4 points or 0.3 per cent, to 1315. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index fell 3 points, to 12,462.
Ford Motor Co. fell 6.1 per cent after it reported quarterly earnings of 20 cents (U.S.) a share, down from 30 cents last year. Procter & Gamble fell 1.4 per cent after it reported a 49 per cent slide in its quarterly earnings. And Chevron Corp. fell 2 per cent after its earnings of $2.58 a share represented a slight retreat from last year's results.
Meanwhile, Starbucks Corp. fell 2.1 per cent after its earnings, released on Thursday after markets closed, beat analysts' estimates -- but sales growth at stores outside U.S. disappointed expectations.
A reading on U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter might also be weighing on investor sentiment. Gross domestic product expanded by 2.8 per cent at an annualized rate, up from 1.8 per cent in the third quarter but slightly below expectations for 3 per cent growth.
Among Canadian stocks, Research In Motion Ltd. rose 1.6 per cent after Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.'s Prem Watsa increased his holdings in the BlackBerry maker to a 5.12 per cent stake.
David Berman