Better-than-expected earnings from major companies and
encouraging comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard
lifted benchmarks higher on Friday. However, the S&P 500
logged its first weekly loss of the year. Strong economic reports
from Europe also lifted investor sentiment and helped the Dow
gain over 100 points. All ten S&P 500 industry groups
finished in the green and the materials sector emerged as the
biggest gainer.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) increased 0.9% to close
the day at 14,000.57. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% to finish
Friday's trading session at 1,515.60. The tech-laden Nasdaq
Composite Index added 1.0% to end at 3,161.82. The fear-gauge
CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) declined 6.9% to settle at 14.17.
Consolidated volumes on the New York Stock Exchange, American
Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were roughly 5.8 billion shares, below
the daily average of 6.45 billion shares in 2012. Advancing
stocks outnumbered the declining stocks. For the 73% that
advanced, 24% declined.
Benchmarks finished the last trading day of the week on an
upbeat note. The blue-chip index inched up 0.1%, the S&P 500
fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq lost 0.1% over the week. During the
previous week, stocks suffered losses due to the nature of the
minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting. Fed policy makers
expressed concerns on $85 billon bond purchases being made every
month. Fed policy makers believe buying bonds of such a huge
quantum would increase inflation and create disturbance in the
financial markets.
Speaking to the CNBC, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard
said the Federal Reserve will keep on buying bonds for a "long
time." Bullard also said: "It's true that the committee is
thinking about how are we going to handle this later this year,
but that's a natural thing for the committee to be talking
about."
On the earnings front, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:
HPQ
) jumped 12.3% after the company announced its quarterly results.
The computer hardware giant's earnings and revenues came in above
the Street's estimates. The company's outlook also came in above
the Street's estimates. HP CEO Meg Whitman said: "While there's
still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want
to see, our turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result
of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation for HP's
future."
The technology sector enjoyed decent gains following
Hewlett-Packard's robust results and the Technology SPDR (XLK)
gained 1.1%. Stocks such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL
), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:
MSFT
), Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ:
DGII
) and Silicon Graphics International Corp (NASDAQ:
SGI
) added 1.1%, 1.0%, 0.9% and 3.2%, respectively.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:
ANF
) also reported its quarterly results. Earnings came in above the
Street's estimates but revenue fell marginally short. Shares of
the company declined 4.5% after its 2013 earnings forecast came
in below the Street's estimates. According to Thomson Reuters
data so far, 70% of S&P 500 company earnings have come in
above the Street's estimates.
On the international front, there was encouraging news from
Germany which boosted investor sentiment. German business
sentiment increased at its highest pace since July 2010 in
February. This indicates that the country is recovering from a
dismal fourth-quarter.
Materials was the biggest gainer among the S&P 500
industry groups and the Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) gained
1.3%. Stocks such as The Dow Chemical Company NYSE:DOW), Ashland
Inc. NYSE:ASH), E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:
DD
), Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ:
KALU
) and Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation (NYSE:
NOR
) gained 1.8%, 2.2%, 1.6%, 1.6% and 4.6%, respectively.
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
ABERCROMBIE (ANF): Free Stock Analysis Report
ASHLAND INC (ASH): Free Stock Analysis Report
DU PONT (EI) DE (DD): Free Stock Analysis
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DIGI INTL INC (DGII): Free Stock Analysis
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DOW CHEMICAL (DOW): Free Stock Analysis
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HEWLETT PACKARD (HPQ): Free Stock Analysis
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KAISER ALUMINUM (KALU): Free Stock Analysis
Report
MICROSOFT CORP (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis
Report
NORANDA ALUMINM (NOR): Free Stock Analysis
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SILICON GRAPHIC (SGI): Free Stock Analysis
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