Saturday, 28 March 2015 00:25
NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Friday, shrugging off data showing weaker-than-expected US economic growth as the market sought to snap a four-day losing streak.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,710.53, up 32.30 points (0.18 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 added 5.40 (0.26 percent) at 2,061.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 25.52 (0.52 percent) to 4,888.88.
US economic growth came in at an annual rate of 2.2 percent for the final quarter of 2014, less than the 2.4 percent projected by analysts and unchanged from the prior estimate, according to Commerce Department data.
US stocks closed lower the four previous sessions on worries about the crisis in Yemen and excessive equity valuations.
Dow Chemical jumped 4.1 percent on news it will separate its chlor-alkali and derivatives business and merge them with chemical company Olin. The deal is worth $ 5 billion to Dow, including $ 2.0 billion in cash and $ 2.2 billion in Olin stock. Olin jumped 20.4 percent.
Dow component Chevron fell 1.4 percent following news it will sell 50 percent of the shares in its Caltex Australia refining and downstream company.
Cruise line Carnival bolted 6.8 percent higher after reporting first-quarter earnings of $ 159 million, compared with a loss of $ 3 million a year ago. The company also said advance bookings for 2015 are ahead of the prior year at higher prices.
Royal Caribbean Cruises rose 6.4 percent and Norwegian Cruise Line added 5.7 percent.
Yahoo advanced 2.3 percent after announcing a new $ 2 billion share repurchase program.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 1.97 percent from 2.00 percent Thursday, while the 30-year dipped to 2.56 percent from 2.59 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015
