Wall Street End July On Positive Note

U.S. stocks were indecisive this week with mixed closings, but all three indexes managed to post gains for the month.



At Friday's final bell, the Dow Jones was down 24 points to end the day at 18,432. The S&P 500 was up 3 points to 2,173 and the Nasdaq added 7 points to reach 5,162.



The Dow fell by 0.8 percent for the week but posted a 2.8 percent increase in July. The S&P was flat this week but also managed to record a 3.6 percent rise in July.



Both markets ended have posted five straight monthly gains.



The Nasdaq rose 1.2 percent this week, and jumped 6.6 percent in July -- the highest monthly gain since March.



Much of the Nasdaq's higher closing came with a rise in tech stocks. After beating expectations Thursday, Google's parent company, Alphabet, revealed strong quarterly earnings that helped the firm's share value rise 3.3 percent Friday. Twitter shares were up 2 percent.



After days of decline, a slight increase in oil prices helped energy companies see their stock value increase Friday.



Devon Energy Corp shares gained 6 percent, while Chesapeake Energy was up 5 percent.



At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 0.8 percent to $41.49, while international benchmark Brent crude was at $43.40 -- a 0.4 percent increase. -