Dow, S&P 500 fall on oil-sector weakness

Weakness in petroleum-linked equities weighed down the Dow and the S&P 500 Friday following poor earnings from ExxonMobil and Chevron and a drop in oil prices.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,695.11, down 49.87 points (0.28 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 3.83 (0.18 percent) to 2,104.80, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added a scant 1.87 (0.04 percent) at 5,130.65.

Dow component ExxonMobil shed 4.6 percent after reporting net income fell by 52.3 percent year-over-year to $4.2 billion in the second quarter. Chevron lost 4.9 percent as it reported about a 90 percent drop in profits to just $571 million.

But the pain to petroleum-oriented equities did not end there. Drilling company Nabors Industries lost 1.8 percent and producer Marathon Oil shed 3.8 percent after US oil prices dived almost 3.0 percent to close at $47.52 a barrel.