NEW YORK, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded lower in the morning session on Friday as investors digested a string of quarterly earnings reports amid rising Treasury yield.

Around midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 195.37 points, or 0.79 percent, to 24,469.52. The S&P 500 lost 19.46 points, or 0.72 percent, to 2,673.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 74.33 points, or 1.03 percent, to 7,163.73.

Shares of Atlassian Corporation tumbled more than 7 percent after the software maker with headquarters in Sydney and San Francisco posted disappointing quarterly results.

The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2018 are expected to rise by 19.7 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase by 7.6 percent.

Before Friday's opening bell, General Electric reported its first-quarter net income of 16 cents per share, up from 14 cents a share a year earlier and beating the market consensus.

Following the release of the encouraging quarterly earnings, the company's shares jumped nearly 4 percent in the early trading on Friday.

The Treasury yield kept rising on Friday, with the 10-year Treasury note yield jumping above 2.94 percent in the morning session, which dampened investor sentiment.

There is no major economic data due Friday.

U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday, as Wall Street pondered over a batch of earnings reports amid economic data. Enditem