US stocks have staged five consecutive weeks of gains, but analysts asked investors to brace for a tough ride as earnings results of key recession-battered companies emerge in the coming weeks.
Shares ended the holiday-shortened week on a high note with the blue chip Dow index posting a stunning three-digit gain on Thursday on the back of projections by banking giant Wells Fargo of a record first-quarter profit.
Friday was a market holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.82 percent to finish the week at 8,083.38, its highest closing level in two months.
The Dow’s fifth weekly gain is the best performance since fall 2007.
The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.67 percent to 856.56 over the week, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 1.89 percent to 1,652.54.
The corporate earnings reporting season for the first quarter began on Tuesday with US aluminum giant Alcoa declaring a hefty US$497 million net loss on plunging prices for the key metal amid the global economic downturn.
Its second consecutive quarterly loss was higher than expected by most analysts and underscored the depth of the 16-month-old US recession flooding listed companies with red ink.
Following Alcoa’s result, the markets turned cautious on light trading ahead of financial results of other key companies, including financial institutions such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs the coming week.
But Wells Fargo, scheduled to announce its results on April 22, made a surprise announcement on Thursday that it expected a “record” net income of some US$3 billion for the first quarter, trouncing Wall Street estimates and sparking a rally before market closed the week.
The US budget deficit accelerated last month to hit a record nearly US$1 trillion just halfway through the current fiscal year, as the US government moved to bail out troubled institutions, government data showed on Friday.
The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on Oct. 1 was US$956.8 billion, according to the Treasury’s monthly statement of receipts and outlays.
Receipts during the six-month period to last month were US$989.83 billion, while outlays amounted to nearly US$1.95 trillion, the data showed.
Last month’s US deficit of US$192.27 billion was higher than the US$160 billion expected by most analysts, coming on the back of money poured by US President Barack Obama’s administration to rescue financial institutions.
All six months of the fiscal year so far recorded red ink. The last time the US plunged into a consecutive six month deficit was during the October 2003 to March 2004 period, officials said.
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
GRAFT PROBE: Critics questioned Ko claiming he did not know about the Core Pacific floor area ratio issue until this year, citing a 2021 video in which he was asked about it Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released without bail early yesterday, while his deputy during his tenure as Taipei mayor was detained and held incommunicado after being questioned since Friday over graft allegations related to a shopping center redevelopment project. Prosecutors on Saturday filed a request with the Taipei District Court to officially detain Ko and former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) over allegations surrounding the redevelopment of Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心). The court yesterday determined that the evidence provided by prosecutors was insufficient to justify the detention of Ko and ordered his
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