Mixed Finish to Otherwise Positive Week
22-Jul-11 16:20 ET Dow -43.25 at 12681.16, Nasdaq +24.40 at 2858.83, S&P +1.22 at 1345.02
Another big batch of better-than-expected earnings reports couldn’t keep stocks from spending Friday stuck in mixed trade. The major averages still scored solid weekly gains, though.
General Electric (GE 19.04, -0.12), Microsoft (MSFT 27.52, +0.43), Verizon (VZ 36.74, -0.83), and McDonald’s (MCD 88.56, +2.02) all reported better-than-expected earnings results for the latest quarter, but MCD shares were the only ones that put together any kind of a meaningful gain. Favor for the fast service food giant took its shares to a new record high.
Fellow Dow component Caterpillar (CAT 105.15, -6.45) was the only blue chip that came short of the consensus earnings estimate. The construction equipment company compounded its offense with a weak forecast. That caused the stock to slide to a July low. Such weakness weighed on the broader industrials sector, which fell to a 1.0% loss.
Tech stocks were at the other end of the spectrum. They scored a 1.2% gain on the back of big gains by Advanced Micro (AMD 7.75, +1.25), Western Digital (WDC 38.04, +2.91), and SanDisk (SNDK 45.57, +4.00), all of which surged in the wake of their latest quarterly reports.
Strength among tech stocks also helped the Nasdaq outperform its counterparts after it had lagged them in the prior session. The Nasdaq’s outsized gain this session also helped it edge out the S&P 500 and Dow for the week. Specifically, the Nasdaq scored a 2.5% weekly gain, which is greater than the 2.2% weekly gain achieved by the S&P 500 and the 1.6% weekly advance staged by the Dow.
Given the pace of progress in establishing plans to restore the fiscal health of country’s in the eurozone’s periphery, little attention was paid to news that officials put together a new bailout package for Greece and also promised to provide financial support, as necessary, to other countries in the region. The news did drive a heady 7.5% gain for Greece’s stock market, however. Portugal’s market average advanced 1.5% and Ireland’s advanced 1.4%.
The news failed to help the euro after it had already advanced against the greenback for three straight sessions. Although the euro fell 0.3% to $1.437 on Friday, it finished the week with a 1.5% gain.
Advancing Sectors: Tech +1.2%, Consumer Discretionary +0.4%, Energy +0.5%
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.1%, Consumer Staples -0.2%, Financials -0.3%, Materials -0.4%, Telecom -0.5%, Utilities -0.6%, Industrials -1.0%
..Nasdaq 100 1.1%. ..S&P Midcap 400 0.2%. ..Russell 2000 0.1%.
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