GLOBAL MARKETS -US, European stocks waver as markets watch for signs of Middle East peace progress

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks were mixed and European shares were lower on Friday as investors monitored the fragile U.S.-Iran truce and weighed solid corporate earnings against downbeat forward guidance due to the war-related energy price shock.

Tech shares, buoyed by strong results from Intel INTC.O, helped put the Nasdaq on top, while the S&P 500 was more modestly green. The Dow was in negative territory.

For the week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq appeared set to log nominal gains, while the blue-chip Dow was poised to register a decline from last Friday's close. Even so, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq continued to hover near record highs.

"What's been dominating for the last two weeks is earnings," said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Management in New York. "And then after that, the resolution of the war."

"Yesterday the market tried to sell off because of war headlines and then it rallied back," Hatfield said. "Today, there is positive news that the foreign minister is in Pakistan, and the market's not even up on that."

Peace talks between the United States and Iran could resume shortly in Pakistan, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was due to arrive Friday night, according to Pakistani sources.

Additionally, the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire was extended by three weeks following a high-level meeting at the White House, according to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Oil prices were volatile as supply concerns offset optimism over potential U.S.-Iran peace talks.

U.S. crude CLc1 fell 1.12% to $94.78 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 fell to $104.70 per barrel, down 0.36% on the day.

SOLID CORPORATE EARNINGS MARRED BY DOUR GUIDANCE

First-quarter reporting season has hit full stride, with 139 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 81% have beaten earnings estimates. Analysts now see aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 16.1%, up from the 14.4% growth projected at the beginning of the quarter, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.

But on analyst conference calls, CEOs are increasingly providing downbeat guidance due to spiking fuel costs resulting from the war on Iran. Consumer products company Procter & Gamble PG.N warned on its Friday earnings call that it expects a roughly $1 billion hit to its fiscal 2027 profit because of the war-related energy price shock.

Next week, a spate of high-profile earnings is on the docket, including tech and tech-adjacent megacaps Amazon AMZN.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, and Meta Platforms META.O. Oil supermajors Exxon Mobil XOM.N and Chevron CVX.N are slated to report next Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 151.44 points, or 0.31%, to 49,157.80, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 22.81 points, or 0.32%, to 7,131.21 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 197.27 points, or 0.81%, to 24,635.41.

European shares dropped on Friday and were on course to notch their first weekly loss in five as investors fretted about an inflation shock arising from disrupted energy supplies due to Middle East turmoil.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS rose 2.05 points, or 0.19%, to 1,069.36.

The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index fell 0.49%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 10.77 points, or 0.44%.

Emerging market stocks .MSCIEF rose 12.17 points, or 0.76%, to 1,611.48. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed higher by 0.77%, to 825.44, while Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 575.95 points, or 0.97%, to 59,716.18.

The dollar dipped but held weekly gains as war uncertainty kept investors on edge.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.23% to 98.59, with the euro EUR= up 0.26% at $1.1713.

Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar weakened 0.19% to 159.41.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin BTC= gained 0.09% to $77,994.26. Ethereum ETH= declined 0.47% to $2,315.37.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR fell 1.7 basis points to 4.306%, from 4.323% late on Thursday.

The 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield fell 1 basis point to 4.9081% from 4.918% late on Thursday.

The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 4.3 basis points to 3.783%, from 3.825% late on Thursday.

Gold advanced but remained on track for a weekly loss as inflation worries persisted amid the Middle East turmoil. Spot gold XAU= rose 0.81% to $4,730.84 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCc1 rose 0.03% to $4,706.70 an ounce.