Wall Street ekes out gains, Dow logs 5-week wining streak
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E-mail Xinhua, July 27, 2013
U.S. stocks wiped out earlier losses and finished in green territory on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising for the fifth consecutive week, as investors weighed positive consumer sentiment against a batch of mixed corporate earnings.
The Dow inched up 3.22 points, or 0.02 percent, to 15,558.83 points. The S&P 500 advanced 1.40 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1, 691.65 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 7.97 points, or 0. 22 percent, to 3,613.16 points.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 moved down 0.03 percent while the Nasdaq climbed 0.7 percent.
The U.S. consumer sentiment index for July rose to 85.1, the highest level in six years, according to the final reading of a joint report released by Thomson Reuters and University of Michigan on Friday. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected the index to rise to 84.0.
But Wall Street still dipped into negative territory in early trading session, shrugging off the positive economic data, as a bunch of mixed earnings reports weighed on the market.
Zynga shares plunged 14.00 percent to 3.01 dollars per share, one day after the social game services provider posted a net loss of 15.8 million U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2013, smaller than the prior year's loss of 22.8 million dollars. The company also posted a current quarter outlook far below market expectations.
Expedia shares plummeted 27.38 percent to 47.20 dollars a share, after the Internet-based travel website company said late Thursday its second-quarter earnings fell 32 percent on higher costs and expenses.
Amazon.com swung to a loss of 7 million dollars, or 2 cents a share, in the second quarter, falling from a profit of 7 million dollars a year ago and defying analysts' expectations of earning 5 cents a share. But its quarterly sales grew 22 percent to 15.70 billion dollars. Amazon shares rose 2.84 percent to 312.01 dollars a share.
On the positive side, Starbucks posted net earnings of 417.8 million dollars in the third quarter of 2013 fiscal year, up 25.4 percent from the prior year, and quarterly revenues climbed 13 percent to 3.74 billion dollars. Shares of the coffee chain jumped 7.61 percent to 73.36 dollars a share.
According to Thomson Reuters data, 47 percent of the S&P 500 companies have reported second-quarter earnings so far, among which some 68 percent have beaten profit estimates, while some 56 percent have topped revenue forecast.
The market wobbled in the past couple of days, as major stock indices were looking for direction and further catalyst amid a lackluster second-quarter earnings season.
Investors were also cautious of placing big bets ahead of next week's closely-watched Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting and the U.S. non-farm payroll reports for July as well as the country' s gross domestic product data for the second quarter of this year.
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