Another Losing Week for Markets
Investors nibbled at tech, telecom and airline stocks Friday, but the mood on Wall Street was sober as the broader market wrapped up its longest weekly losing streak in a year.
The jitters about slack corporate profits and concerns about the mounting violence in the Middle East that have slammed stocks in recent weeks continued.
“It’s just a bounce-back,” said Michael Vogelzang, president of Boston Advisors. “It’s been a brutal couple of weeks.”
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.74 points, or 0.1%, to 10,190.82, rebounding from Thursday’s 205-point decline. The Nasdaq composite index rose 30.95 points, or 1.8%, to 1,756.19, and the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 7.32 points, or 0.7%, to 1,111.01.
Winners led losers 2 to 1 on Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. Trading was moderate.
For the week, the S&P; 500 lost 1%. It was the benchmark index’s fourth straight weekly decline, a streak not seen since it fell eight weeks in a row in early 2001. Nasdaq and the Dow both slipped 0.8% for the week. It was Nasdaq’s fifth straight weekly loss.
Oil stocks dragged on the market after oil prices fell $1.52 to $23.47 a barrel after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, pressured by the military, agreed to resign.
Airline stocks rallied after a promising initial stock offering by JetBlue Airways, which rose more than 66% in its first day of trading.
Economic reports Friday showed consumers kept spending in March but only at a modest pace, and consumer sentiment dipped in early April, in part because of the Middle East violence. Wholesale prices surged in March, mostly because of the recent spike in energy prices.
In other market news:
* IBM rose $1.41 to $85.60, regaining some of the ground it lost Thursday on a report that regulators were probing its accounting. Investors breathed a sigh of relief when the Securities and Exchange Commission said late Thursday that it had opened and shut a preliminary inquiry into IBM.
* General Electric fell 20 cents to $33.55 and was the most active stock traded on the NYSE. GE slumped 9% on Thursday after posting a rare drop in quarterly net income after charges for accounting changes. Its revenue was weaker than analysts had hoped.
* Telecom stocks rose, recovering from a severe beating in recent days on worries that the sector will continue to be plagued by the soft economy, price wars and weak demand. Wireless phone service provider Sprint PCS jumped 73 cents to $9.96. The Amex North American telecommunications index rose 2.5%.
Market Roundup, C3
