Stocks in New York Make Early Move Higher
Updated from 9:15 a.m. EDT
Stocks in the U.S. opened higher Thursday, as a decline in third-quarter GDP was narrower than expected and companies issued a heap of
statements.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
gained 209 points to 9200, and the
S&P 500
added 23 points to 953. The
Nasdaq
jumped 38 points to 1695.
Ahead of Thursday's session, the Department of Commerce reported that GDP contracted 0.3% in the third quarter, providing a strong indication that the U.S. has entered a recession. The decline was narrower than expected by economists but down from growth of 2.8% in the second quarter.
The Department of Labor's initial jobless claims for the week ended Oct. 25 registered at 479,000, above analyst estimates and level with the previous week.
Additional intervention to bolster the economy looked to be in the works, as
Bloomberg
reported that the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. may devote $500 billion to help avert home foreclosures.
In the wake of the Federal Reserve's 50-basis-point rate cut that brought its target interest rate to 1% Wednesday, debt markets were relaxing. Three-month dollar Libor was down 23 basis points to 3.19%, and overnight Libor declined 41 basis points to 0.73%.
A smattering of corporate earnings were once again occupying traders' attention. Following Wednesday's close, insurance company
MetLife
(MET) - Get Report
announced a decline in quarterly profit. Fellow insurer
Prudential
(PRU) - Get Report
swung to a loss.
Exchange operator
CME Group
(CME) - Get Report
said profit declined year over year.
Investors heard from a variety of energy companies. Integrated oil firm and Dow component
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
posted earnings of $14.8 billion, the largest quarterly profit ever reported by a U.S. company.
Royal Dutch Shell
(RDS.A)
reported income that rose 71% year over year on higher oil prices.
Murphy Oil
(MUR) - Get Report
, on the other hand, reported a substantial increase in third-quarter earnings but lowered guidance for the fourth quarter. Oil and natural gas firm
Apache
(APA) - Get Report
reported a profit for the third quarter that increased 94% from the year-ago period.
Ahead of Thursday's trading, telecommunications equipment maker
(ALU)
reported a loss on falling revenue and charges stemming from the merger between Alcatel and Lucent.
Cell-phone manufacturer
Motorola
(MOT)
swung to a loss and lowered guidance for the full year.
Pharmaceutical company
AstraZeneca
(AZN) - Get Report
reported net income that rose year over year. Consumer products maker
Colgate-Palmolive
(CL) - Get Report
also announced an increase in profit on rising sales.
On the merger front,
Delta Air Lines
(DAL) - Get Report
completed its acquisition of
Northwest Airlines
(NWA)
.
Crude oil Thursday was gaining 63 cents to $68.13 a barrel. Gold was rising $7.50 to $761.50 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were falling in price. The 10-year note was down 22/32 to yield 3.94%, and the 30-year was down 17/32, yielding 4.27%. The dollar was rising sharply vs. the yen, but falling against the euro and pound.
Overseas, European exchanges including the FTSE in London and the Dax in Frankfurt were trading higher. In
, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed with substantial gains.
(
)
