(RTTNews) -  Stocks moved mostly lower on Friday, as a lack of significant economic catalysts gave traders the further opportunity to cash in on recent gains ahead of next week's deluge of data. The major averages all closed in negative territory, slipping further away from Tuesday's yearly highs.

Amid some profit taking over the past few sessions, the major averages closed on a mixed note for the week. The Dow posted a weekly gain of 0.5 percent, while the Nasdaq fell 1.0 percent and the S&P 500 posted a more modest 0.2 percent weekly loss.

The weakness in the markets was partly due to disappointing quarterly results from computer marker Dell (DELL), which reported third quarter earnings that fell to $0.17 per share from $0.37 per share in the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $0.23 per share compared to analyst estimates of $0.28 per share.

Revenue for the quarter fell 15 percent to $12.9 billion, coming in below analyst estimates of $13.18 billion. Looking forward, Dell said it expects fourth quarter revenue to improve over the third quarter.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI) also released results that disappointed investors, reporting a fourth quarter net loss of $0.73 per share compared to a loss of $2.53 per share in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of $0.30 per share.
In other corporate news, mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. (NOK) said this morning that it plans to align its research and development operations in Finland and Denmark, effectively eliminating up to 330 R&D jobs.

On the global economic front, the Bank of Japan unanimously decided to retain the overnight call rate at 0.1 percent, in line with economist expectations. The last change in the rate was a 0.1 percentage point cut in interest rates at the December 2008 meeting.

While the Dow briefly peeked above the unchanged line in the final hour of trading, the major averages all ended the day in the red. The Dow closed down by 14.28 points or 0.1 percent at 10,318.16, the Nasdaq fell by 10.78 points or 0.5 percent to 2,146.04 and the S&P 500 slipped by 3.52 points or 0.3 percent to 1,091.38.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed mostly lower on Friday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed down by 0.8 percent.

The major European markets also closed moderately lower, with the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index falling by 0.3 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index closed down by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

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