Earnings Reports Push Stocks Higher; Dow Gains 73

TIM PARADIS

NEW YORK (AP) — Encouraging earnings news from major retailers and The Walt Disney Co. drew investors back into the stock market to cap a second big week of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 73 Friday after falling 94 on Thursday. Major stock indexes rose more than 2 percent for the week.

Upbeat quarterly reports from Disney as well as Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and J.C. Penney Co. offset worries about a slide in consumer confidence.

Disney said late Thursday that higher revenue at its cable, broadcast and movie studio divisions helped drive profits up 18 percent. Abercrombie's results were better than expected, while J.C. Penney raised its earnings and sales forecasts.

The market stumbled briefly in morning trading after a report found that the mood of consumers darkened this month. The preliminary Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for November came in at 66.0, down from 70.6 in October. That could bode poorly for the holiday shopping season.

Stocks rebounded after that report but later pared their gains as the dollar pulled off its lows of the day. The dollar's steady slide since March, due largely to record-low U.S. interest rates, has pushed stocks and commodities higher on hopes that it would help U.S. exports, which become cheaper overseas with the weak dollar.