RTRS; US STOCKS-Wall St trims losses, Google helps Nasdaq
U.S. stocks trimmed losses on
Friday as financial shares recovered from an earlier fall, but
the Dow and S&P 500 were pressured by weak corporate earnings
and jitters over the outlook for the rest of the year.
The Nasdaq was the best performing index, briefly climbing
into positive territory although it struggled to stay there.
The index was helped by Internet leader Google (GOOG.O), which
reported earnings that beat expectations after the bell on
Thursday. Google was up more than 5 percent at $323.25.
But fueling worries of how 2009 will fare, bellwether
General Electric (GE.N) was down more than 6 percent at $12.61
after the company, a Dow component, warned of an "extremely
difficult" 2009 although it posted a quarterly profit that met
expectations.
"GE really represents the whole market. GE is the
bellwether because they operate in almost all segments of the
market and there's no segment here that you can really look at
and say that looks good," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief
investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in
Charlotte, Vermont.
"On average companies are saying they expect a very, very
challenging year and that's part of what's causing the
problem," he said.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 123.13
points, or 1.52 percent, at 7,999.67. The Standard & Poor's 500
Index .SPX fell 5.91 points, or 0.71 percent, to 821.59. The
Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC edged up 1.38 points, or 0.09
percent, at 1,466.87.
The earnings season so far has been a weak one, as
expected, with companies announcing a slew of job cuts and
giving a grim outlook for the year ahead but there have been
some bright spots, particularly in the tech sector.
The S&P financial index .GSPF turned around to edge up
0.4 percent, while JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Citigroup (C.N)
were among the Dow's biggest supports. JPMorgan was up 1.7
percent at $23.50 and Citigroup gained 12.5 percent to $3.50.
The group has been hard hit recently by worries over the
health of the sector and the possibility banks will have to
raise more capital.
