NEW YORK — Stocks finished the session higher Friday,
helping cement solid gains for the week, as key corporate earnings from
consumer names helped offset news that sentiment remained shaky among U.S.
consumers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 73 points, or 0.7
percent, to end at 10,270.47, finishing the week with a gain of 2.5 percent.
The blue-chip average still finished below a 13-month high it reached
Wednesday.
Strong earnings at Walt Disney Co., an analyst upgrade of
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and a retreat in oil prices helped the market
shake off a weak reading of consumer sentiment. Traders said that many bears
also had placed bets early that the sentiment data would be glum, clearing the
way for buyers to rush back following the data’s actual release.
“We’ve been hearing for so long about the toll that
weak employment and higher savings rates are having on consumer spending,”
said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffer’s Investment Research in
Cincinnati. “At this point, it might sting a little to see confirmation of
that. But I think it’s hard to have a sustained reaction.”
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 18.9 points, or 0.9
percent, to 2,167.88. For the week, it was up 2.6 percent.
The S&P 500 Index rose 6.2 points, or 0.6 percent, to
1,093.48. For the five-day period, it added 2.3 percent.
Disney shares got a lift after the entertainment giant’s
better-than-expected quarterly report.
Goodyear was up more than 4 percent after Goldman Sachs
analysts upgraded the tire maker to a buy rating from neutral, saying that
recent selling in the company’s shares was overdone following its weak
fourth-quarter forecast.
The gains in Disney and Goodyear helped propel the S&P
500’s consumer-discretionary sector to a 1.6 percent gain — the strongest showing
in a rally that spread across almost all the broad index’s categories, except
financials.
The Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer
sentiment fell to 66 in November, down from 70.6 in October. Analysts had been
hoping to see the measure rise as high as 72 in the latest report.
After a 204-point surge Monday, momentum and trading volume
tailed off markedly during the week, with many traders becoming less apt to
unload hoarded dollars in favor of more aggressive plays in stocks and
commodities.
But the “risk trade” again was in favor Friday,
with the dollar edging lower.
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The government reported that the U.S. trade balance widened
more than expected in September, with import prices rising faster than export
prices. The trade deficit widened to $36.5 billion in September, compared with
expectations for an expansion to $32 billion, according to economists polled by
MarketWatch.
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners,
said the data were a mixed blessing for investors. While a widening trade gap
hints at stronger-than-expected demand in the U.S. economy, many investors will
not be pleased to see the dollar stabilize.
Cardillo added he still believes that the market is in a
broad trend higher.
Investors on Monday will also pay close attention to
speeches by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, New York Fed President William Dudley
and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans.
The dollar index was slightly weaker, down 0.5 percent at
75.240, though that’s above the 15-month lows of 74.77 reached earlier in the
week.
A slew of economic releases from Europe showed that the
euro-zone economy finally escaped recession in the third quarter, but advanced
at weaker pace than economists anticipated. Led by Germany, the euro zone rose
at a 0.4 percent quarterly clip in the third quarter.
Major Asian benchmarks were mixed, with the Nikkei 225
falling 0.35 percent but the Hang Seng rising 0.7 percent. European indexes
also were mixed, with the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 rising 0.49 percent.
Commodity prices were mixed too. Oil futures fell 59 cents,
or 0.8 percent, to end at $76.35 a barrel in New York. Gold futures rose $10.20
to end at $1,116.80 per ounce in New York.
Treasury prices edged lower. The 10-year note was off 2/32
to yield 3.428 percent.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
