US stocks rose for a second week, sustaining their comeback from the worst December since 1931, as they rebounded from losses triggered by an unexpected decline in employment last month.
Cisco Systems Inc gained after analysts said demand for communications equipment may recover this year. Applied Materials Inc rose as a US Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst said orders will climb at the biggest maker of equipment to build semiconductors.
Tax cuts proposed this week by President George W. Bush also boosted the market, some traders said.
"A lot of the negative stuff is last quarter or last year," said Kevin Connellan, head of trading at Northern Trust Corp, which manages US$300 billion in Chicago. "A lot of companies are going to beat lowered expectations from here, and Bush has a great chance of passing his stimulus package."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.77, or 0.1 percent, to 8,784.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended almost unchanged, down 0.01 to 927.57. For the week, the S&P 500 and the Dow both advanced 2.1 percent.
The NASDAQ Composite Index, which is more than half computer-related and telecommunications shares, rose 9.26, or 0.6 percent, to 1,447.72, bringing its gain for the week to 4.4 percent.
Declining and advancing stocks were about even on the New York Stock Exchange, where almost 1.5 billion shares changed hands, up 7 percent from the average of the past three months.
Stocks gained even as companies such as FleetBoston Financial Corp and Schering-Plough Corp said earnings were disappointing.
Cisco rose US$0.27 to US$15.22. The largest maker of equipment to link computers "is the primary investment vehicle for participating in the data networking space in 2003" as companies start upgrading their systems, Deutsche Bank analyst Raj Srikanth said in a note to clients.
Nortel Networks Inc, the second-largest North American phone equipment surged US$0.20 to US$2.35. North American phone companies may spend more than expected next year on telecommunications equipment, Lehman Brothers analyst Steven Levy wrote in a note to investors.
Applied Materials climbed US$0.66 to US$15.70. US Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Gregory Konezny raised revenue and earnings estimates at the world's biggest maker of semiconductor- manufacturing equipment, citing a "significant improvement" in orders starting in the second quarter. He raised his estimate of the company's earnings this year by 17 percent to US$0.21 a share.
Intel Corp, the largest chipmaker, rose US$0.36 to US$14.88.
FleetBoston slipped US$0.10 to US$27.40 after the seventh-biggest US bank said fourth-quarter profit will be below analyst estimates because it set aside US$800 million for bad loans.
FleetBoston said it earned US$0.28 a share last quarter, less than half what analysts expected.
Schering-Plough lost US$0.10 to US$22.96 after dropping as much as 6.2 percent. The company estimated that earnings last year missed its forecast as sales of prescription allergy medicine Claritin shrank more quickly than it anticipated. Schering-Plough is selling an over-the-counter version of its biggest product after losing a battle to block generic rivals.
"The generics problem is mounting, and it will mean margins will come down" for drugmakers, said Paul Severin, who helps manage 14 billion euros (US$15 billion) of global assets at Capital Invest in Vienna.
Alpharma Inc. jumped US$2.54 to US$16. The maker of generic drugs said it expects to earn between US$1.15 and US$1.25 a share this year, above the average analyst estimate of US$1.06, according to Thomson First Call.
Wyeth dropped US$0.75 to US$38.25. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit reversed a US$226 million tax refund, saying an overseas partnership set up by the drugmaker on Merrill Lynch & Co's advice was a "sham" that lacked a legitimate business justification.
Lexmark International Inc tumbled US$4 to US$62.26. The second-biggest US maker of computer printers said first-quarter net income will rise to 62 cents to US$0.72 a share. The average forecast was US$0.72, according to First Call. Printer demand usually falls in the first quarter and may slide more than normal this time after sales of inkjet printers rose more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter, according to market researcher Dataquest Inc.
Dell Computer Corp., the largest seller of personal computers, fell US$1.15 to US$27.15.
AOL Time Warner Inc rose US$0.55 to US$14.88 and Homestore Inc soared US$0.38 to US$1.32. The manager of the Web site of the National Association of Realtors said it settled an arbitration demand against the largest media company. Homestore will continue to provide AOL Time Warner's America Online unit with real-estate information and make quarterly cash payments of US$3.75 million until the agreement expires in June 2004. Homestore also will pay US$7.5 million to terminate its previous agreement with AOL.
AOL Time Warner will cut jobs and pare marketing expenditures to save money, the Washington Post reported, citing Wayne Pace, chief financial officer.
JC Penney Co fell US$0.98 to US$23.60. The second-largest US department-store company will fire 2,000 people at its catalog unit after nine quarters of falling sales.
Genzyme Corp rose US$2.67 to US$31.58. The company's Fabrazyme drug clears up abnormal fat deposits in Fabry disease patients, US government reviewers said. Genzyme will seek a US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee's backing next week for Fabrazyme.
Oil company shares fell as the prospect of more production sent crude down 1 percent in New York.
Exxon Mobil Corp fell US$0.50 to US$35.24, ConocoPhilips lost US$1.32 to US$46.69 and ChevronTexaco Corp shed 51 cents to US$68.61.
"We had gone through such a period of pessimism in the past year," said Richard Parry, a money manager at Tom Johnson Investment Management, which oversees about US$1 billion. "Now we haven't yet seen a great deal of corporate earnings announcements that have been negative. There's still optimism out there."
The S&P 500 lost 23 percent last year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day