Stock Indexes Are Mixed

Wall Street opened mixed on Wednesday, staying close to multiyear highs for stock indexes.

The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.3 percent in morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 0.5 percent. European markets were up moderately in afternoon trading.

Equities have been strong performers of late, buoyed largely by healthy growth in corporate earnings, with the S.P. 500 gaining 6.5 percent so far this year. The Dow is about 1 percent from an all-time intraday high, reached in October 2007.

The recent gains could leave the market vulnerable to a pullback as investors take profit amid a dearth of new trading catalysts. While analysts continue to see an upward bias in markets, recent daily moves have been small and trading volumes have been light.

“This is a market that refuses to go down, and the trend suggests that we’ll not only hit a new high on the Dow, but move well beyond it,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.

Industrial and construction shares will be in focus following President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, during which he called for a $50 billion spending plan to create jobs by rebuilding degraded roads and bridges. He also backed higher taxes for the wealthy.

Deere Co. reported earnings that beat expectations and raised its full-year profit outlook. After initially rallying in premarket trading, the stock turned 1 percent lower.

Comcast agreed late Tuesday to buy General Electric’s remaining 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion. Comcast jumped 8.9 percent while G.E., one of the stocks in the Dow average, was up 3.1 percent.

According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of 353 companies in the S.P. 500 that have reported fourth-quarter results, 70.3 percent have exceeded analysts’ expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.

Retail sales rose 0.1 percent in January, as expected, as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending. The data barely moved the markets.

Wall Street stocks closed modestly higher Tuesday.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss