Stocks in New York on the Rise
Updated from 10:06 a.m. EDT
Wall Street had another choppy session Thursday as investors digested mixed economic data and the latest influx of disappointing corporate numbers.
The major averages took a dip mid-morning, but were lately swinging back to the upside.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was adding 19 points at 12,783, and the
S&P 500
rose 1 point to 1381. The
Nasdaq Composite
climbed 2 points to 2407.
Ford
(F) - Get Report
was among the day's corporate winners after the carmaker posted a surprise first-quarter profit of $100 million thanks to a robust showing in Europe and South America. That offset a loss in its North American segment, which itself was narrowed sharply from last year. Shares bounced 7.9%.
Also rising was
Credit Suisse
(CS) - Get Report
, despite posting its first shortfall in more than five years as it wrote off $5.14 billion in bad assets. That pales in comparison to writedowns at Swiss rival
UBS
(UBS) - Get Report
, and Credit Suisse called its capital position "strong," suggesting it won't need to raise any cash, as UBS was forced to do this month. Credit Suisse shares rose 2.5%.
As for economic data, the Labor Department reported that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits dropped by 33,000 people last week to a better-than-expected 342,000. The consensus called for an unchanged figure.
Also, durable-goods orders -- an important indicator of factory activity -- stepped back 0.3% last month, according to the Commerce Department. That's worse than the flat number economists were expecting, but still an improvement on February's figure, which itself was revised to a 0.9% drop from the prior figure of minus 1.7%.
Separately, the Census Bureau said new-home sales in March sank 8.5% from the prior month to a 526,000 annual pace. A number more on the order of 580,000 had been anticipated.
Back in equities,
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Report
slumped 3.8% after the online retailer eased its 2008 operating-earnings forecast and reporting an essentially flat operating margin in the first quarter. Analysts were hoping for some improvement. The Internet retailer also reported better-than-expected earnings of $143 million on soaring sales of $4.13 billion.
Another tech titan,
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
, saw mixed trading after guiding under earnings estimates for the current quarter. In the first quarter, the maker of Macs and iPhones saw its profit jump 36% to comfortably beat analyst estimates. Shares were recently up 0.8%.
Motorola
(MOT)
, meanwhile, surrendered 4.8% after its quarterly loss and weak second-quarter projection.
Outside of tech,
Starbucks
(SBUX) - Get Report
was also losing ground on its soft guidance. The coffee seller said tough economic conditions should keep its customer-traffic numbers down and force a first-quarter profit drop to 15 cents a share from 19 cents last year. That's well under the consensus estimate. Shares were plunging 13.6%.
Energy stocks also took a hit as crude oil went into retreat, recently shedding 83 cents to $117.47 a barrel.
ConocoPhillips
(COP) - Get Report
reported crushing Wall Street targets with leaping earnings of $4.1 billion, or $2.62 a share, thanks to a surging oil futures. But the stock was still losing around 2% along with
Exxon
(XOM) - Get Report
and
Chevron
(CVX) - Get Report
.
Meanwhile, gold miners
Goldcorp
(GG)
,
Barrick Gold
(ABX)
and
Kinross Gold
(KGC) - Get Report
each sank 4.3% or more as gold futures slid $14.20 to $894.80 an ounce.
At the same time, the U.S. dollar jumped 1.3% against the euro at $1.5692 while firming by 0.5% against the yen.
Treasury prices were little changed recently. The 10-year note was up 16/32 in price to yield 3.80%, and the 30-year bond slid 27/32 in price, yielding 4.55%.
Markets overseas were mostly in retreat. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong jumped 1.6% overnight at 25.681, but Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.3%. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 dropped 1.5%, Germany's Xetra Dax shed 0.4%, and the Paris Cac fell 0.9%.
