July 18, 2009

Stocks finished flat on Friday after a week of solid bank earnings, improving economic data and encouraging forecasts from the tech sector. The Dow added 32 points, the S&P dropped less than one point and the Nasdaq gained two points.For the week, all three indexes posted solid gains of 7%.

The banking sector took center stage again Friday as Citigroup ( C - news - people ) and Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ), as well as a raft of regional banks, reported quarterly results. Both BofA and Citi managed to beat analyst estimates, but the stocks ended lower as investors worried about mounting credit losses.