US stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow scoring its biggest six-week gain since July 1938, helped by a reassuring report on the mood of consumers and stabilization in General Electric and Citigroup’s quarterly results.
The Dow is up 22.7 percent over the past six weeks, making this the largest six-week gain since July 29, 1938.
Friday’s close also marked the S&P 500’s longest weekly winning streak since 2007.
A Reuters/University of Michigan survey showed that US consumers have more confidence in the economy than they have had since the sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, the latest in a spate of data suggesting the economic slump may be easing.
GE and Citigroup both posted better-than-expected results, lifting the broader market, and bank stocks rallied as investors bet other financial companies could follow up with more news showing the sector is on the mend.
Among banks, shares of Bank of America, due to post quarterly results tomorrow, climbed 2.5 percent to US$10.60. The KBW Bank index climbed 3.4 percent and has come close to more than doubling since its lows last month. GE shares gained almost 1 percent to US$12.39.
“The rate of deceleration in the economy is slowing,” said David Lutz, managing director of trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore. “From a macro standpoint, the reason for a lot of the drive is just that we’re continuing to get data points that show things are beginning to operate very well in the credit markets.”
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.90 points, or 0.07 percent, to 8,131.33. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 4.30 points, or 0.50 percent, to 869.60. The NASDAQ Composite Index added 2.63 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,673.07.
The surge capped the S&P 500’s longest weekly winning streak since spring 2007 and added to its strong recovery since the stock market’s descent to 12-year closing lows early last month.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.6 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 1.5 percent and the NASDAQ gained 1.2 percent.
The benchmark S&P 500 is now up 28.5 percent since the bear market closing low of March 9. Its year-to-date drop has narrowed to about 4 percent.
On the NASDAQ, a 1.6 percent gain in the shares of Apple, the maker of the iPhone and iPod, underpinned the technology sector’s advance ahead of Apple’s quarterly results next week.
“Apple is probably going to have positive things to say,” Lutz said.
Apple’s stock closed at US$123.42, while Google gained 0.9 percent to US$392.24, a day after posting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit.
Also underpinning the market’s advance were the gains in the shares of companies seen better able to withstand economic downturns.
Shares of fast-food company McDonald’s Corp rose 2.5 percent to US$56.09 after its chief executive told CNBC that he saw “some thawing” in economic conditions.
The stock gave the top boost to the Dow Jones.
Deutsche Bank said Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Kimberly-Clark Corp were undervalued at current levels. P&G rose 2.4 percent to US$51.66, making it the Dow’s second-biggest advancer, while shares of diversified health-care company Johnson & Johnson added 1.6 percent to US$53.05.
Profit-taking ahead of the weekend, however, tempered some of the upside, according to traders.
Citigroup reported a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss, but its shares dropped almost 9 percent to US$3.65 as some investors paused following the stock’s strong run-up since early last month when the bank said, along with others, it had had a good start to this year.
Trading was active on the New York Stock Exchange, where about 1.95 billion shares changed hands, above last year’s average daily volume of 1.49 billion. On the NASDAQ, about 2.42 billion shares traded, above last year’s average daily volume of 2.28 billion.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a ratio of about 2 to 1 on both the NYSE and NASDAQ.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)