Stocks clock third straight week of gains

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Friday, finishing out a third straight week of gains. GE led the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average after the conglomerate reported stronger quarterly earnings.

|
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday. Major stock indexes closed out their third straight week of gains Friday.

Better earnings from General Electric and Morgan Stanley helped the stock market inch higher Friday, as major indexes closed out their third straight week of gains.

GE led the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average after the conglomerate reported stronger quarterly earnings, thanks to orders from Brazil, Angola and other developing countries. Profits increased at all seven of its industrial segments, including oil and gas, energy management, aviation and transportation. GE climbed 74 cents to $22.04.

The Dow gained 53.68 points to end at 13,649.70.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.04 points to 1,485.98, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.30 points to 3,134.70.

Even though investors had plenty of news to digest, trading was largely quiet. "Earnings always matter," said Rex Macey, the chief investment officer of Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Atlanta. "But just because we're in the middle of earnings season doesn't mean we're going to get huge market moves."

This earnings season is off to a good start so far. Of the 67 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported, 43 have trumped analysts' estimates.

Solid results this week from JPMorgan Chase and others, along with encouraging news on housing and employment, pushed the S&P 500 index to its latest five-year high.

Morgan Stanley's earnings surged across its many business lines, as more companies hired the investment bank to help it raise money and line up mergers. Morgan Stanley gained 8 percent, rising $1.63 to $22.38.

Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, said late Thursday that fourth-quarter net income fell 27 percent. A growing preference for smartphones and tablets, instead of personal computers and laptops powered by Intel chips, have made investors wary of the company's stock. It lost $1.43 to $21.25.

Norwegian Cruise Line soared 30 percent in its first day of trading, the top performance of the three companies making their public debut on Friday. Five companies raised a total of $1.8 billion through initial public offerings this week, making it the best week for IPOs since early October, according to the data provider Ipreo.

American Express fell 96 cents to $59.78. Hefty charges tied to the credit card issuer's plan to cut jobs and reorganize some business lines hurt results, and revenue fell short of estimates.

Analysts forecast that companies in the S&P 500 will report a 4 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings over the same period the year before, according to a report out Friday from S&P Capital IQ. They say banks and other financial firms should have the strongest profit growth of any industry. Technology companies like Intel are expected to struggle.

Among other companies in the news:

— Capital One lost 7 percent after reporting revenue and earnings that fell short of analysts' estimates. The bank and credit-card company also lowered its forecast for revenue in the months to come, and many brokerages quickly responded by cutting their outlook for the company's stock. Capital One sank $4.60 to $56.99.

— Life Technologies, a maker of genetic testing equipment, soared 11 percent following reports that it's considering putting itself up for sale. The company's board said it has hired Deutsche Bank Securities and the investment bank Moelis & Co. Life Technologies' stock jumped $5.82 to $60.79.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Stocks clock third straight week of gains
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0118/Stocks-clock-third-straight-week-of-gains
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe