U.S. Stocks Rise On Earnings; S&P 500 Above 1,500
U.S. stocks rose Friday, extending the S&P 500 index’s longest winning run in more than six years, on improving profit from Procter & Gamble Co. and other quarterly results.
“The housing market is generally positive and causing an upward bias to the market [and] quarterly earnings are generally in line to above expectations,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management.
And, growth in emerging markets should be a positive factor for many U.S. multinationals, and is “one catalyst that could see earnings to the upside; you’re seeing some of that with fourth-quarter results,” he said.
“That said, I think the market is a little ahead of itself, and I would like to see it go sideways in coming weeks to take some of the adrenaline out of the market,” Sandven added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 47 points, or 0.3%, to 13,872.76 in afternoon trading.
The S&P 500 rose 6.63 points, or 0.4%, to 1,501.4, with consumer discretionary the best performing and technology advancing the least among its 10 major industries. Read: S&P 500 target raised to 1,600 at Deutsche Bank.
Consumer discretionary is also among the better performing sectors so far this year, running second only to energy from the end of 2012.
“The consumer at present hasn’t pulled back the reigns; the market would tell you it hasn’t had a major impact yet,” said U.S. Bank’s Sandven of the expiration of the payroll-tax recess, which meant the average American started getting paychecks smaller by about 2% this year.
The S&P 500 on Thursday managed to finish with a seventh straight gain, ending at a five-year high, and briefly managed to clear 1,500 during the session for the first time since late in 2007.
Without Apple Inc. , the S&P’s less than 0.1% rise on Thursday would have been closer to 0.5%, and the technology sector’s 2% decline would have been a 0.5% gain, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for S&P Dow Jones indexes.
On Friday, Apple shares continued their decline, with the company falling to second behind Exxon Mobil Corp. in market capitalization. Read: Apple falls behind Exxon as most valuable firm.
Apple late Wednesday reported disappointing financial results, with a slew of analysts lowering their price targets on the iPhone maker in response. The company lost $59.9 billion in market value during the Thursday session alone, and its shares fell 1.6% on Friday.
Should the S&P end higher Friday, the index would notch its longest win streak since the nine-day run that ended in early November 2004.
Procter & Gamble reported a second-quarter profit well above expectations, with the household-products maker also hiking its sales and earnings outlook for the blue chip’s fiscal year.
Halliburton Co. shares climbed 5% after the oilfield-services company reported adjusted fourth-quarter results that topped estimates.
Of the 174 companies, or 29% of the S&P 500, that had reported earnings for the fourth quarter as of Thursday’s close, 68% reported earnings that beat consensus estimates, almost 14% were in line, and more than 18% missed, according to Greg Harrison, earnings research analyst at Thomson Reuters.
The Nasdaq Composite index advanced 18 points, or 0.6%, to 3,148.7.
For every three stocks on the decline four gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 403 million shares traded as of 3:15 p.m. Eastern.
Composite volume hit 2.5 billion.
Stock indexes curbed their gains after the Commerce Department reported that the nation’s sales of new homes fell 7.3% in December. Shares in the home-building sector traded mostly higher, however.
Marketwatch
