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Shares of Wells Fargo & Co., which fell 0.6% to $51.49, were in the spotlight as the biggest US mortgage lender was the first major US bank to report earnings.
Wells Fargo's results will be followed next week by earnings from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
Next week's flurry of earnings will include reports from Google
"This market is predicated on economic data, but above all else, it's on what companies are telling us. We need to hear from companies to give credence to whether or not the economy is gaining momentum versus losing traction," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, based in Newark, New Jersey.
Internet names ranked among the day's biggest gainers, with shares of Amazon.com Inc up 5.6% at $346.20, and eBay Inc up 2.3% at $51.50.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.74 points or 0.17%, to end at 16,943.81. The S&P 500 gained 2.89 points or 0.15%, to 1,967.57. The Nasdaq Composite added 19.29 points or 0.44%, to 4,415.49.
For the week, the Dow ended down 0.7%, the S&P 500 slid 0.9% and the Nasdaq tumbled 1.6%.
A sharp drop in oil prices slammed energy shares, with US crude futures settling down more than $2 a barrel. Shares of Exxon Mobil were down 0.8% at $101.74 and were the biggest drag on the S&P 500.Chevron, down 1.4% at $128.47, was the Dow's biggest%age decliner.
A bright spot was provided by Whirlpool Corp. The stock rose 1.1% to $140.76 after the US manufacturer of washers, dryers and other major home appliances agreed to buy a 60% stake in its smaller Italian rival Indesit Company SpA for about $1 billion.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,657 to 1,358, for a 1.2-to-1 ratio on the upside. On the Nasdaq, advancers were about even with decliners.
About 4.9 billion shares traded on US exchanges, below the 5.4 billion average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.
