Bank Stocks Drag

U.S. stocks closed mixed Thursday with financial stocks dragging and technology stocks slightly rising. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 4.8 percent after an earnings report showed a slowdown in investment banking hurt its results in the third quarter. The bank's investment income fell four percent.

Many investors consider JPMorgan to be the strongest U.S. banks so this is not good news for other financial companies, according to Jason Lilly, a portfolio manager at Rockland Trust Investment Management Group.

JPMorgan is the first major U.S. bank to issue their earnings. Wells Fargo, CitiGroup and Morgan Stanley are expected to report their earnings next week.

A rise in technology stocks evened out some of the market's losses. Yahoo rose one percent with speculation that the company might be bought. Standard & Poor's technology stocks rose one percent also, the most of any industry group in the index.

One day before the release of the new iPhone 4S, Apple stocks rose 1.6 percent. Google's stock jumped 5.4 percent during after-hours tradings after their third quarter earnings were released.

At close, the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 40.72 points or 0.4 percent, the technology-focused Nasdaq rose 15.51 percent or 5.4 percent. They closed at 11,478.13 and 2,620.24 respectively.