Market Snapshot July 24, 2009, 4:30PM EST

Stocks Finish Mixed, with Techs Lagging

Gains in energy and drug issues helped the Dow to its 10th straight positive close Friday. The Nasdaq snapped a 12-session winning streak

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U.S. stock indexes finished mixed Friday , as gains in drug and energy issues helped the Dow industrials and S&P 500 extend recent gains while the Nasdaq got weighed down by disappointing earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN).

The Dow extended its string of consecutive advances to 10 straight days after finishing Thursday's session over the 9,000 level. The Nasdaq snapped a 12-day winning streak.

Investors weighed a report that showed the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 66 in late July from an earlier 64.6 reading, but fell from 70.8 in June.

On Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 23.95 points, or 0.26%, at 9,093.24. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index added 2.97 points, or 0.30%, to 979.26. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index shed 7.64 points, or 0.39%, to 1,965.96.

Treasuries were flat to higher. The dollar index was lower. Gold futures were lower. Crude oil futures were up.

Next week's market calendar features a healthy does of earnings releases. The economic calendar features reports on retail sales, home price, jobless claims and other figures. Data will likely take a back seat to the earnings news and a record amount of Treasury issuance, says Action Economics.

On Friday, the market was eying dueling Congressional appearances from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as the two sparred over regulatory reform.

In testimony prepared for a House hearing, Geithner said it was important to strip the Fed and other regulators of their consumer protection duties and create a new federal agency dedicated solely to such a mission. Bernanke disagreed, saying that the Fed is best suited to the task. Monitoring risk and protecting consumers are "closely related, and thus entail both informational advantages and resource savings," said Bernanke. Geithner said he welcomes debate but that the stakeholders must agree to reform. "We simply cannot afford inaction on this issue," he said.

Wall Street received disappointing news from two technology titans after the close of trading Thursday.

Microsoft's net income fell 29% and sales dropped 17% for the quarter ended June 30. Both missed Wall Street's expectations.

Amazon.com also reported disappointing earnings. The Seattle retailer posted net income of $142 million in the second quarter, a 10% drop from the same period in 2008 and the first such decline since December 2006. Sales improved 14%, to $4.65 billion, but narrowly missed Wall Street's expectation of $4.7 billion.

Results from two financial firms released Friday were keeping the markets wary of more losses in the consumer credit sector. American Express (AXP) reported a 48% drop in net income amid higher credit write-offs.

Meanwhile, Capital One Financial (COF) posted a $276 million loss.