Market Wrap: Stocks Rise; Dow, S&P 500 See 4th Week of Gains

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Stocks began November with a rally. It wasn’t a big rally, but it was good enough that big-cap stocks mostly finished higher for the week.

Airlines, utilities, financials and industrial stocks fueled the rally. Energy shares were hurt by crude oil’s lowest closing price since June 21. Materials shares moved lower as gold and silver prices slid.

Next week, investors face the October jobs and unemployment report, due Friday. In addition, the Commerce Department will issue its first reading on third-quarter economic growth on Thursday. After Thursday’s close, Twitter, the micro-blogging site, will price its initial public offering, and trading will start Friday under the ticker TWTR. Twitter has said it expects the IPO to price at $17 to $20 a share.

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The Dow Jones industrials closed up 70 points, or 0.45 percent, to 16,616. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 5 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,762. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,922.

The Dow and S&P 500 finished higher for a fourth straight week, up 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq, the Nasdaq-100 and the Russell 2000 Index, however, all ended the week with small declines.

For the year, the Dow is up 19.2 percent, with the S&P 500 up 23.5 percent. The Nasdaq and Nasdaq-100 are up 29.9 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively. The Russell 2000 is up 28.3 percent.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average gained 73 points, or 1.04 percent, to 7,048, just short of an all-time high. Airline gains pushed the index higher, thanks to those lower oil prices.

Oil prices, in fact, weighed on the Dow. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) reported a 5.8 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings. Shares fell 1.6 percent to $118.01. The decline subtracted 12.5 points from the Dow.

Chevron has earned $4.95 billion, or $2.57 a share, compared to a year-ago’s $5.25 billion, or $2.69 a share. Its revenue rose 0.8 percent to $58.5 billion. Analysts had expected $2.71 in earnings on revenue of $58.41 billion.

Auto shares were mostly higher after manufacturers reported strong domestic sales. General Motors (NYSE: G), Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Honda (NYSE: HMC) shares were higher.

Equities Trading UP

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) shot up 14.92 percent to $57.81, after the company reported upbeat third-quarter results and lifted its full-year earnings forecast.

Shares of Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) got a boost, shooting up 3.5 percent to $5.79 after the Federal Trade Commission closed a probe of the company’s proposed merger with OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX).

Southwestern Energy Co (NYSE: SWN) was gained 2.79 percent to $38.26, after the company reported Q3 financial and operating results. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Ellie Mae (NYSE: ELLI), which operates an electronic mortgage origination network, were down 18.27 percent to $23.62, after the company reported a weaker-than-expected Q3 profit. Ellie Mae also signed a definitive agreement to buy MortgageCEO.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) shares tumbled 6.18 percent to $48.46. The company reported a 17 percent rise in its third-quarter net income, but it also took a $1 billion write-down on the value of older jets owned by its ILFC airplane-leasing subsidiary.

Scientific-instrument maker Bruker (NASDAQ: BRKR) was down, falling 6.18 percent to $19.19 on Q3 results.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.84 percent to $94.61. It was crude’s lowest settlement since June 21. Crude had been up as much as 20.4 percent for the year; that’s been trimmed to 3.4 percent. Gold settled down 0.8 percent to $1,313.20.

Silver traded down 0.14 percent to $21.84, while copper fell 0.002 percent to $3.2985 a pound.

Eurozone
European shares were mixed on Friday. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.7 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.97 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX was off 0.29 percent. France’s CAC-40 Index fell 0.6 percent and Britain’s FTSE-100 Index was up 0.05 percent.

Economics
The final reading of Markit manufacturing PMI surged to 51.8 in October, versus a flash reading of 51.1.

The ISM manufacturing index rose to 56.40 in October from September’s 56.20. The reading just missed economists estimates of 55.

Winners and Losers

Among the week’s winners: Dreamworks Animation (NASDAQ: DWA), up 20.39 percent; Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), up 15.9 percent; and United Airlines parent United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) up 14.02 percent. AMR (OTC: AAMRQ) added 27.01 percent.

Among the losers: AIG, down 6.9 percent; gold-miner Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), down 4.7 percent; and homebuilder M.D.C. Holdings (NYSE: MDC), down 1.37 percent.

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