Stocks turn up despite consumer survey, inflation worries

Bond prices fell ahead of next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve's interest rate committee. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.87 percent from 3.83 percent late Thursday.

Beyond the economy and spikes in oil, the market is concerned about corporate news. Craig Hester, chief executive at Hester Capital Management in Austin, Texas, said stocks will likely fluctuate as investors digest the flood of corporate results from this week and next as well as ahead of the Fed decision.

"The big risks I see for stocks right now are earnings," he said, adding that next week should help give investors a better idea about the state of the economy, with reports due on the nation's gross domestic product and employment.

Investors next week could also get further insights into the health of the consumer next week with reports due from names like Tyson Foods Ind., Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods Inc., Burger King Holdings Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Crest toothpaste and Pampers diapers.

Corporate reports in the past week played a large role in shaping sentiment. The back-and-forth left stocks poised to show little change for the week an indication that earnings are largely meeting expectations, said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

"The earnings have come in on the financial side pretty much where people expected, and in terms of the industrial side a little bit better than expected. Consumers were a little bit weaker than expected. So you net all those together and the earnings season is turning out as people thought it would before it started," he said.

"What we've seen this week is pretty much a sideshow to the data we'll receive next week."

In corporate news Friday, Microsoft fell $2.04, or 6.4 percent, to $29.76 after its first-quarter report. The tech leader said after the closing bell Thursday that worldwide sales next year should offset weakness in the U.S. economy.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. rose $1.48, or 5.4 percent, to $28.73 after posting a first-quarter profit amid increased revenue. The tiremaker, which reported a loss for the same period a year earlier, said it focused on higher-priced tires and international markets.

American Express Co. rose $2.04, or 4.5 percent, to $47.22 after reporting its first-quarter earnings fell 6 percent as more U.S. cardholders failed to make their payments. The credit card lender's total provisions for credit losses jumped 48 percent from a year earlier to $1.27 billion. However, the company said cardholders are continuing to spend and that strength abroad has helped make up for troubles in the U.S.