WEEKLY UPDATE – Swedish stocks dived in Friday afternoon trading as company earnings beat expectations, but fear about a double-dip recession still haunts the market.

The OMX Stockholm 30 index closed down 1.97 percent Friday. Compared to a week ago stocks were up 2.12 percent.

US stocks pared losses Thursday after energy giant BP stopped the leak in the Gulf of Mexico and Goldman Sachs agreed to pay a record settlement over fraud charges. But Friday's lower- than-estimated revenue at General Electric and Citigroup and a slump in consumer confidence fueled concern the economic recovery is slowing.

"The earnings season is off to a very good start, but the big question remains: how bad will be the slowdown in the second half? Until we get a clear answer, the market will be prone to big swings like the ones we've seen over the past 20 days," Philippe Gijsels, senior equity strategist at Fortis Bank, told Reuters.

Japanese-Swedish enterprise Sony Ericsson, the world's fifth biggest mobile phone maker, on Friday posted second consecutive quarterly profit and said that higher average selling prices more than offset a drop in the number of units shipped. Shares in Ericsson were up 0.40 percent in Friday midday trading.

Atlas Copco, the world's largest maker of air compressors, Friday posted a 72 percent rise in second-quarter earnings to 2.52 billion kronor ($343.3 million) and said demand for its products and services is expected to increase. The company's share rose 2.50 percent the announcement.

SSAB, the world’s largest supplier of high-tensile steel, was up 2.80 in midday Friday trading after Finland’s largest producer of carbon steel, Rautaruukki, advanced the most in two months in Helsinki trading after posting a profit in the second quarter.

On Thursday morning Gothenburg-based SKF, the world's biggest bearings maker, made a 1.45 billion kronor ($193 million) second quarter net profit, up from 323 million kronor the same period last year, and said that demand is expected to increase during the coming quarter. It was the company’s best operating profit ever. Still, the share fell almost 5 percent as macro data increased fear of a double-dip recession.

SEB, Sweden's third-biggest bank, on Tuesday said it swung to a net profit in the second quarter. The bank's share rose almost 5 percent in Stockholm as the result was better than expected and the bank was upbeat about falling loan loss provisions.

Investor AB, the Swedish publicly traded industrial holding firm controlled by the influential Wallenberg family, said Tuesday its closely-watched net asset value rose 3.7 percent to 195 kronor a share on June 30 compared to three month ago, slightly beating market expectations.

"Core Investments had a positive contribution to net asset value in the second quarter, mainly driven by in Ericsson and AstraZeneca”, chief executive officer Börje Ekholm said, adding that ABB had the largest negative contribution.

Investor’s performance is considered a reliable indicator of the state of the Swedish economy as it has stakes in nearly all of Sweden's major companies. Among Investor's main holdings are Swiss-Swedish engineering group ABB, the bank SEB, white goods maker Electrolux and the world leader in telecoms networks, Ericsson.

Since the turn of the year the OMX Stockholm 30 index is up 8.72 percent.

This article has been published at The Swedish Wire and Nasdaq OMX Nordic.