On Thursday, the S&P 500 was barely changed as early gains were triggered by solid earnings reports. Caterpillar shares have also turned negative, and there was a decline in the dollar evaporated.

Biogen Inc reported fourth-quarter revenue that surpassed the estimate that Wall Street put on a recently-launched drug, Sprinraza. These unexpectedly high sales from Biogen Inc gained 0.66 percent.

In counter, Caterpillar Inc. shares turned negative after rising up to 2.8 percent. At one point, shares were down 1.03 percent, and investors collected profits in a stock that was up about 8 percent at the start of the week.

The president of Empire Executions Inc in New York, Peter Costa, made a statement and said, “It opened up big and then all of a sudden it is tanking, that pulled down a lot of positive momentum in the market.”

“For whatever reason, it is not going (up) anymore, and people just start taking profits and pulling money out.”

Strong quarterly earnings reports and economic data have helped drive the major wall street indexes to a robust start this year, with each on track for fourth week of gains.

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Earnings growth for the benchmark S&P 500 is estimated at 12.4 percent. 78.4 percent of the 88 companies in the index have topped expectations, while 72 percent have done average in the previous four quarters.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 99.44 points, or 0.38 percent, to 26,351.56, the S&P 500 gained 1.68 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,839.22 and the Nasdaq Composite added 4.28 points, or 0.06 percent, to 7,419.34.

The European Central Bank retains its ultra-easy policy, but weakness in the U.S dollar has persisted. Draghi warned the spike in the Euro was a source of apprehension. It was said that if U.S. comments a weak dollar lead to a change in monetary conditions, then the bank might have to review strategy.

Large U.S. multinational companies benefit from a weaker dollar usually. The dollar fell 0.72 percent against a group of major currencies and it also held near three-year loans.

After U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he welcomed a weaker currency, the greenback happened to offer its biggest daily percentage drop in the last seven months.

Mnuchin made a point in saying that the U.S. trade balances in the short term could benefit from a weaker dollar, but he does believe in the long-term strength of the currency.

Weekly initial jobless claims have risen since last month. Claims rose from a downwardly revised 216,000 to 233,000. Either way though, these claims were 240,000 below forecast. This infers that the labor market is continuing to firm.

In a turn of events, U.S. single-family homes fell more than expected in the month of December, and this is one of the largest drops within the last 1-1/2 years.

After Ford Motor Co posted a lower-than-anticipated quarterly net profit, shares plummeted 3.36 percent. Rising commodity costs and unfavorable currency exchange rates hurt the company’s bottom line. It was expected that more stress would come from the higher raw material prices in 2018.

Results were expected from Intel Corp and Starbucks Corp after the close of trading on Thursday.