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Netflix ( NFLX ) falls after soft Q2 forecast

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AmEx rises after Q1 earnings

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Paramount up on likely buyout bid from Sony ( SONY ), Apollo

(Updated at 4:00 p.m. ET/2000 GMT)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq and the S&P

500 ended lower on Friday as Netflix ( NFLX ) shares weighed,

but American Express ( AXP ) kept the Dow afloat after quarterly

earnings from both companies, while growing pessimism that the

Federal Reserve would cut interest rates soon also dented

sentiment.

Netflix ( NFLX ) slumped as one of the bigger drags on the benchmark

S&P index and Nasdaq after the video streaming company's

second-quarter revenue view fell short of analysts' expectations

while the company also unexpectedly said it would no longer

provide subscriber counts.

But the price-weighted Dow Industrials rose, thanks in part

to a climb in American Express ( AXP ), after the payments company

reported first-quarter profit that was above expectations.

Equities have struggled recently following a five-month

rally that started in November, in part due to expectations the

Fed was likely to cut interest rates in the first half of the

year.

But a recent string of hotter-than-expected inflation data,

strong labor market data, geopolitical tensions in the Middle

East that have sparked a rise in oil prices, and comments from

Federal Reserve officials including Chair Jerome Powell has

caused market participants to dial back the timing of any rate

cut from the central bank.

"You've seen rate-cutting expectations just continue to come

out of the market, and they should be because there's nothing

about the data that says they should cut," said Mike Dickson,

head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon

Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"So in that environment when you're sitting here near highs,

that means it's not going to be rates going down and multiples

expanding because of that, that has to be driven by earnings

growth. And so just the more the rate picture doesn't look

super-favorable for lower rates, even more important is the

earnings growth picture."

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 43.92

points, or 0.88%, to end at 4,967.20 points, while the Nasdaq

Composite lost 319.48 points, or 2.05%, to 15,281.10.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 209.14 points, or

0.55%, to 37,984.52.

The S&P and Nasdaq have fallen for six straight

sessions, the longest streak of declines for each since October

2022.

Progress on bringing down inflation has "stalled" this year,

said Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, the latest U.S.

central banker to drop an earlier focus on the coming need for

interest rate cuts.

Chip-related stocks, some of the best performers of the year

thanks to their association with artificial intelligence, also

tumbled, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down

about 4%. The index recorded its biggest weekly percentage

decline in nearly two years.

Each of the three major indexes were lower on the week, with

the S&P suffering its biggest weekly decline since March 2023

and the Nasdaq its biggest since October 2022.

Shares of Paramount Global ( PARAA ) surged after a person

familiar with the matter told Reuters that Sony Pictures

Entertainment and Apollo Global Management ( APO ) are

discussing making a joint bid for the company.