By Anora Mahmudova and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch)--The U.S. stock market shook off morning
blues and picked up steam in late-afternoon trading with the main
benchmarks venturing into positive territory.
The main indexes were still on track for weekly losses,
however.
The S&P 500 (SPX) was up 3 points, or 0.1% at 1,967.31. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) ticked up 26 points, or 0.2% to
16,941.46.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) was 18 points, or 0.4%, higher at
4,414.78 but still on track for a week of steep losses.
Follow MarketWatch's live blog of Friday's stock-market
action.
Kim Caughey Forrest, senior equity analyst at Fort Pitt Capital,
explained the reason behind shallow pullbacks: "There are lots of
investors with cash who missed out on spectacular gains in 2013, so
every time they see a dip, they are buying it. I suspect that often
it is a retail investor, because institutional investors are more
disciplined," Forrest said.
Banking heavyweight Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) kicked off the
reporting season for the financial sector with headline earnings
that were in line with expectations. The stock was 0.3% lower as
analysts delved into the details.
Amazon's (AMZN) stock climbed 5.5%. The company unveiled new
products for its successful Amazon Web Services business, including
new systems for collaboration and mobile.
Tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) confirmed it is in
talks with Lorillard Inc. (LO) about a possible acquisition.
Lorillard shares rose 5.5%.
Mortgage insurers, including Genworth Financial Inc.(GNW), fell
in response to new proposed capital requirements by the Federal
Housing Finance Agency. Genworth slid 2.1%.
Fastenal Co.(FAST), which makes fasteners, tools and other
industrial and construction supplies, fell 4.4% in the wake of
second-quarter earnings.
An influential broadcaster in China said the location-tracking
function in Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone was a "national security
concern," in the latest backlash against U.S. tech firms. Read
about more of the day's notable movers here.
Fed speakers
"The Federal Reserve should consider hiking rates in response to
the improving outlook," Charles Plosser, president of the
Philadelphia Fed, said Friday. "We should not be keeping rates at
zero until we meet all our objectives," Plosser said in an
interview on Bloomberg TV. Plosser is known as a hawk and is a
voting member of the Fed's policy committee this year.
At 3 p.m. Eastern Time, Charles Evans, the president of the
Chicago Fed, and Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed
Bank, will be on a panel about success and failures of Fed policy.
Lockhart has said he expects short-term rates will be held at zero
until the latter half of 2015, while Evans has said it may not be
until 2016 that the Fed starts on its rate-hike path. Evans and
Lockhart are not voting members on the policy committee this
year.
European stocks bounce, oil drops
In overseas markets, European stocks bounced back Friday after
Thursday's drop, which came as Portuguese conglomerate Espírito
Santo International SA this week missed a payment on some
short-term debt. That sent shares of its subsidiaries, Banco
Espirito Santo AS and Espirito Santo Financial Group SA, spiraling
lower.
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei Average fell 0.3% and Hong
Kong's Hang Seng Index ended flat.
Among commodities, crude for August delivery (CLQ4) fell $2, or
1%, to $100.81 a barrel. August gold (GCQ4) fell $2 to $1,337.3 an
ounce.
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