Google Paces Tech Gains
Tech stocks firmed Friday as investors celebrated a mammoth quarter at
(GOOG) - Get Report
.
Index futures recently showed the
S&P 500
trading a point above fair value, while the Nasdaq 100 was set for a 4-point gain. The 10-year Treasury bond was up 3/32 in price to yield 5.03%, while the dollar fell against the yen and euro.
Thursday was a strong session for blue chips, with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rising 0.6% to a six-year high of 11,343 thanks to a 10% rally in shares of
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
. Rival
Ford
(F) - Get Report
reports results Friday.
Other indices did less well Thursday, with the S&P 500 adding 0.1% to 1311 and the
Nasdaq Composite
falling 0.4% to 2363.
Oil futures were lower, although the price was up from Thursday because of the advent of the June contract as the front-month benchmark. In electronic Nymex trading, June crude was trading for $72.96 a barrel, down 73 cents from last night's close.
Overseas markets were mostly higher, with London's FTSE 100 recently adding 0.6% to 6117 and Germany's Xetra DAX adding 0.5% to 6094. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5% overnight to 17,404, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.2% to 16,912.
Google shares rose nearly 10% late Thursday after the company posted a 60% rise in first-quarter earnings and reporting an operating EPS number of $2.29 a share. That beat Wall Street estimates by 15%. Sales minus advertiser commissions were $1.53 billion, beating the $1.44 billion Thomson First Call consensus.
The quarter highlighted Google's growing strength outside of its core search franchise, a development that reportedly is making some of its larger competitors nervous. According to the
Wall Street Journal
Friday,
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
has spoken to both
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
and
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
about possible alliances to combat the Google threat.
Thursday night saw another deluge of profit news, including a report from
SanDisk
(SNDK)
, which said first-quarter earnings fell to $35.1 million from $74.5 million a year ago, reflecting a writeoff. Adjusted earnings of 44 cents a share matched estimates.
To view David Peltier's video take on today's premarket action, click here
.
Away from technology,
Halliburton's
(HAL) - Get Report
first-quarter net rose 34% from last year thanks to strength in the company's energy-services division. The company's income from continuing operations of 90 cents a share was 2 cents ahead of estimates.
Friday morning, rival
Schlumberger
(SLB) - Get Report
reported a first-quarter profit of $722 million, or 59 cents a share, on sales of $4.24 billion. The results topped Street forecasts for earnings of 55 cents a share and sales of $4.15 billion.
Another energy giant could see action Friday,
Valero
(VLO) - Get Report
. Analysts at Prudential initiated the refining company with an overweight rating and set a $75 price target, citing widening margins for certain petroleum products, among other things. Valero closed at $67.57 Thursday.
