US stocks rose, paring losses for the month, as Walt Disney Co's profit topped forecasts, Boeing Co won a US$6 billion aircraft order and Midwest manufacturing expanded more than expected.
"In terms of underlying developments on the economy, in terms of corporate profits, we are going the right way," Kevin Bannon, chief investment officer at Bank of New York Co, told Bloomberg Television. The bank oversees US$70 billion.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 108.68, or 1.4 percent, to 8,053.81. Disney and Boeing contributed more than one-tenth of the gain. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 11.09, or 1.3 percent, to 855.70. Both benchmarks climbed for a third day in four.
Applied Materials Inc tumbled, sending the NASDAQ Composite Index lower, after the company said orders for its semiconductor-making equipment fell more than forecast last quarter.
The NASDAQ lost 1.44, or 0.1 percent, to 1,320.91.
The S&P 500 slipped 2.7 percent this month, its worst January performance since 2000, partly because of concern a war with Iraq would push up energy prices and slow economic growth. The Dow fell 3.5 percent and the NASDAQ 1.1 percent.
Stocks' January declines may foretell a drop for the year.
Since 1950, the direction of the market in January predicted the annual course of the stock market in all but 10 years. In the Stock Trader's Almanac, Yale Hirsch says there were only four "major" errors, when the direction of stocks in January was dramatically different from the rest of the year.
Shares were helped after the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago's factory index rose to its highest since May, suggesting a recovery among Midwest factories gained strength in January.
"This is a good first number showing growth," said Philip Orlando, chief investment officer at Value Line Asset Management, which oversees about US$5 billion.
Among the S&P 500 companies that have posted fourth-quarter results, profits have risen 11.6 percent, according to Thomson First Call. Analysts expect earnings growth of 12.5 percent once all the index's members have reported.
Disney share rose US$1.15 to US$17.50 after the second-largest US media company said fiscal first-quarter profit beat the average analyst forecast. Disney earned US$0.17 a share, excluding aircraft-lease writedowns, as revenue rose to a record on higher theme-park attendance and television ad sales. Analysts expected US$0.15.
Boeing added US$0.93 to US$31.59. The world's largest planemaker received an order from Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe' second-largest low-cost airline, for as many as 100 jetliners.
More than two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange while four advanced for every three that declined on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Some 1.51 billion shares traded on the Big Board, 11 percent above the three-month daily average.
Benchmark indexes slumped for a third consecutive week. The S&P 500 lost 0.7 percent, the Dow 1 percent and the NASDAQ 1.6 percent.
Applied Materials, the biggest maker of equipment to produce semiconductors, slipped US$0.98, or 7.6 percent, to US$11.97. The company said orders fell 35 percent in the fiscal first quarter from the fourth period, more than its previous estimate of a 20 percent drop.
Hewlett-Packard Co declined US$0.79 to US$17.41, while Dell Computer Corp slipped US$0.32 to US$23.86. Lehman Brothers Inc's Daniel Niles, one of Institutional Investor magazine's top-rated analysts, said US demand for the companies' computers was weak this month.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
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