S & P 500 closes for the first time in five years over 1,500

2:00 PM closes, first, years No Comments

From news agencies, NBC News

The S & P 500 index on Friday the 1,500 above sea level for the first time closed in more than five years as the strong U.S. earnings reports by & gamble Procter and others helped the benchmark to extend their rally in eight days.

The Dow Jones industrial average was 70.50 points or 0.51 percent to 13,895.83. The standard & poor's 500 index was 8.11 points, or 0.54 percent, to 1,502.93. The Nasdaq composite index was 19.33 points or 0.62 percent to 3,149.71.

For the week, the Dow Jones rose 1.8 percent, the S & P rose 1.1 percent and the NASDAQ rose by 0.5 percent. Profits for all three indexes, it was the fourth straight week.

Data showed sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell in December but rose in the year 2012 to its highest level since 2009, has turned a corner a shield the troubled US housing market.

"Economic data in the United States is higher, albeit modest been running." Things are incrementally better, "said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

"The market was despite deterioration in the Apple move forward and this is also a positive."

Apple's shares fell 1.2 percent to $444.99 and was the iPhone manufacturer swap places as the most valuable U.S. company with ExxonMobil Corp by the afternoon.

In addition to the optimistic tone, improved morale of the German economy for a third month in a row in January to the highest in more than six months. In addition, said European banks, that they pay back more than the loans, which gave the Bank during the crisis the European Central Bank are expected much.

"Good news in the credit markets will help the stage for (further investments in) put risky assets," Krosby said.

Procter & gamble shares rose 3.6 percent to $72.99 after the world's best products for domestic manufacturers quarterly profit expectations rose. The company said sales and earnings Outlook for the fiscal year.

The benchmark S & P 500 index is more than 5 percent so far in January. Strong start this year, the equity market has solid balance sheet presentation, an agreement in Washington attributed to the expansion of the powers of the Government borrowing, encouraging signs of the global economy and seasonal inflows in equities.

Helping to lift the NASDAQ Composite rose Starbucks, 4.5 per cent to $57.01 after the coffee retailers stronger than expected sales in the United States and Asia.

Thomson Reuters data until Friday showed that 68 percent of the 147 S & P 500 companies that have reported the result exceeded expectations. Since 1994 62 percent of companies exceeded, while the average for the past four quarters is 65 percent expectations.

Halliburton co shares jumped 5 percent to $39.69 after the world's second largest oilfield service companies higher than expected profits and sales in the fourth quarter reported.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Read More

Dow takes nosedive, closes below 13,000

5:00 PM 13000, below, closes, nosedive, takes No Comments

JeeYeon Park , CNBC

Stocks took a sharp nosedive in a post-election selloff Wednesday, with the Dow logging its biggest decline in nearly a year, prompted by concerns over the looming "fiscal cliff" and amid renewed worries over Europe's weak economy.

The Dow closed below 13,000 for the first time since early August, while the S&P 500 finished below 1,400.

“It’s now how quickly we can focus on the ‘fiscal cliff’ and coming up with a resolution—that's certainly the next item on the agenda for the market,” said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets. "And you still have Europe."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 300 points in its biggest one-day drop in almost a year, dragged heavily by Bank of America and JPMorgan.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished sharply lower. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, jumped near 19.

All key S&P sectors ended firmly in the red, led by energy and financials.

Apple fell more than 3 percent, pushing the tech giant down a jaw-dropping 20 percent from its all-time high of $705.07 in mid-September. The stock is now trading in bear market territory.

Obama was re-elected president Tuesday night, put over the top by the crucial battleground state of Ohio following the most expensive election in U.S. history.

Meanwhile, ratings agency Fitch said Obama needs to move quickly to avoid the "fiscal cliff," adding that failure to address the issue would likely result in a downgrade in 2013. Moody's said it would make a decision following the budget negotiations, though going over the "fiscal cliff" would not immediately trigger a downgrade.

Wall Street had favored Romney and the Republican ticket in part because it preferred their approach of retaining tax cuts, and making spending cuts. The Obama Administration favors raising taxes on the richest Americans, and also increasing capital gains and dividend taxes.

Across the pond, European shares reversed their gains to close sharply lower following ECB President Mario Draghi's negative comments on the region's economy. Draghi said economic activity in the euro zone area is expected to remain weak and the slowdown may have reached Germany.

And the members of Greece’s parliament are expected to vote on a new package of austerity measures with the government’s majority under threat. If the bill doesn’t pass, Greece will not receive its next financial aid installment of 31.5 billion euros ($40.2 billion) on Monday.

“The U.S. election temporarily flipped worries over Europe, but Europe still has an important role in global markets,” said Quincy Korsby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “They’ve obviously been a chronic condition, but it’s flare ups like today that grab attention.”

Among earnings, Macy's reported a higher profit, thanks to sales gains, and the department-store chain also boosted its full-year earnings guidance.

Time Warner edged higher after the media company posted better-than-expected earnings.

And Kraft Foods struggled to hold gains even after the newly independent food manufacturer reported a higher profit and affirmed its 2013 outlook.

Qualcomm, CBS and Activision Blizzard are among companies slated to post earnings after the closing bell.

Treasury prices slipped from session highs after the government auctioned $24 billion in 10-year notes at a high yield of 1.675 percent. Bid-to-cover was 2.59.

On the economic front, weekly mortgage applications declined last week as Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast and disrupted normal business activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

And consumer borrowing expanded by $11.36 billion in September, according to a Federal Reserve report. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a gain of $10.1 billion.

Read More

Wall Street rally continues; Dow closes up 23 points

7:15 AM closes, continues, points, rally, Street No Comments

CNBC's Bertha Coombs reports on the week's biggest winners and losers, including shares of Apple rallying post earnings.

U.S. stocks advanced for a fourth day on Friday, led by gains in technology after stronger-than-expected earnings from Amazon.com and Expedia offset a weaker-than-expected reading on economic growth.

Expedia shares surged 26.7 percent to $41.33 and was the top percentage gainer on Nasdaq, followed by Amazon, which climbed 15.5 percent to $226.30.

The gains follow a week of mostly robust earnings results, which have boosted the S&P 500 earnings growth rate to 7.2 percent this week from 3.2 percent at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters data. So far about 73 percent of the companies have beaten expectations.

At the same time, economic data has been mixed, with Friday's data showing first-quarter gross domestic product expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate, below the forecast of 2.5 percent.

"The news is getting worse and worse, and the markets aren't really responding to that," said David James, senior vice president of James Investment Research in Alpha, Ohio. He noted the market is paying closer attention to corporate earnings.

"I tend to think as far as going forward, the big key for people especially looking at tech is what happens with the dollar. I think the dollar will probably be stronger than people expect on a relative basis. Historically that usually means tech is the sector that gets hit the hardest."

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average closed the day up 23.62 points, or 0.18 percent, at 13,229.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 3.41 points, or 0.24 percent, at 1,403.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 18.59 points, or 0.61 percent, at 3,069.20.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both recorded their best weeks in a month. A blowout quarter from Apple gave the Nasdaq its best day of the year earlier this week.

The moves in the indexes have wiped out much of April's losses. After three days of gains, the S&P is well above its 50-day moving average.

On the downside, Procter & Gamble Co shares fell 4.2 percent to $64.05 after it cut its full-year profit view and posted lower earnings.

Starbucks fell 5.4 percent to $57.41 and was one of the biggest percentage decliners on the Nasdaq 100 as weakness in Europe pressured global sales.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Read More

China closes in on US in patent filings

10:34 AM China, closes, filings, patent No Comments

GENEVA — International filings for patent protection, a key indicator of technological innovation in major economies, hit an all-time record last year driven by growth in China and other middle- income countries, a United Nations agency said on Monday.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation, which administers the global patent pact, reported that 2011 saw a 10 percent rise in applications to a total of 181,900.

"This shows that companies around the world continued to innovate last year despite the widespread uncertainty affecting the global economy," WIPO director general Francis Gurry said.

WIPO figures showed the United States, Japan and Germany, the long-time leaders in total applications, accounted between them for 58 per cent of total filings, but China, with a rise of 33.4 per cent on the previous year, was pushing them hard.

And the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant ZTE Corp , with 2,826 applications, pushed Japan's Panasonic Corp, which filed 2,463, out of top place among individual company filers.

Another major Chinese information technology manufacturer, Huawei Technologies Co was in third place, with 1,831 applications, the WIPO statistics showed. A previous leader, U.S. group Qualcomm Inc, dropped from third to sixth place.

Gurry told a news conference that applications last year under the global Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) that it supervises showed a geographic shift in innovation activity from North America and Europe to Asia.

Overall, Asian applications accounted for 39 per cent filed in 2010, while North America accounted for 28.3 per cent and Europe for 13.9 per cent.

Filings by the United States totalled 48,596, an increase of 8 per cent over 2010, and Germany's were 18,568, 5.7 per cent up on the previous year. But alongside China's huge surge Japan also increased its filings by 21 per cent to 38,888.

Elsewhere in western Europe the picture was mixed, with Switzerland, France and Sweden showing increases ranging from 7.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent, but the Netherlands was down 14 per cent, Finland and Spain by 2.7 per cent, and Britain by one per cent.

Gurry said the year showed growing innovative activity in large middle-income countries like Russia, whose filings were up 28 per cent, Brazil, with an increase of 17.2 per cent, and India, up 11.2 per cent.

Russian applications came from a wide range of sectors, led by electrical machinery, pharmaceuticals, transport and medical technology.

A report last December from ThomsonReuters based on data gathered for its Derwent World Patents Index showed that with domestic applications included China had become the top filer in 2011, ahead of the United States and Japan.

It said the Chinese government -- offering incentives for national companies to file patent applications -- was pushing for innovation in particular sectors including automobiles, pharmaceuticals and technology.

But legal experts said at the time that while subsidising patents might increase the number of applications for protection filed it gave no indication of the quality of the innovations for which cover was sought.

Asked how far the rising application totals from emerging economies reflected quality, Gurry said on Monday there was no established way of measuring that.

"It is very difficult to track the quality of an invention," he told the news conference.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters.

Read More