United States stocks rose, paring a weekly decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as German business confidence jumped to a 10-month high amid better-than- anticipated corporate earnings.
Bloomberg News reported on Friday, that Hewlett-Packard Company advanced by 9.1 per cent, the most in the S&P 500, after it forecast profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates.
American International Group Incorporated climbed by 2.4 per cent as fourth-quarter results beat forecasts. Texas Instruments Incorporated rose by 4.8 per cent after increasing its quarterly dividend and adding $5bn to its stock repurchase program
The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent to 1,509.61 at 12:02 p.m. in New York. The index fell by 1.9 percent in the previous two days as concern grew that the Federal Reserve may slow the pace of stimulus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 64.76 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 13,945.38 today. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 5.5 per cent below the 30-day average at this time of day.
“The tone generally is not ebullient, but it tells you that there’s a real strength in the equity market that it’s actually rebounding today,” the chief investment officer at Boston-based Lee Munder Capital Group LLC, Mr. Jeffrey Davis, said in a phone interview.
His firm oversees $5bn. “I have not seen a market like this in a long time where you can absorb a week of not-so-good news and rally at the end.”
In Germany, the Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 107.4 in February from a revised 104.3 in January. The median of 38 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey had called for an increase to 104.9. The latest reading was the highest since April.
In Italy, voters head for general elections on Sunday amid concern the emergence of a populist government will derail the nation’s austerity program.