Wall St. flat as earnings fail to excite investors

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in lower Manhattan in, New York, U.S., April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidMoreBy Abhiram Nandakumar
(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were flat on Friday after poor quarterly reports from technology bellwethers Microsoft and Alphabet outweighed gains from steadying oil prices.
Microsoft was the biggest drag on all three major indexes.
Crude rose about 1 percent on signs of strong gasoline consumption in the United States. [O