General Electric earnings results boost Wall Street

US REPORT: Dow Jones:11,871.84 (+49.04) S&P 500:1,283.35 (+3.09) Nasdaq:2,689.54 (–14.75)

US STOCKS advanced, paring the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index’s first weekly drop since November, as higher-than-estimated earnings at General Electric spurred a rally in shares of industrial companies, bolstering optimism on the global economic recovery.

“It’s a pretty strong earnings season,” said Philip Orlando, the New York-based chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, that manages $341.3 billion.

“US bellwethers reported profits that beat estimates. On top of that, the tone of the economy has changed significantly for the better,” he said.

General Electric advanced 7.1 per cent, the most in the Dow average, to $19.74. The world’s biggest maker of jet engines, medical- imaging equipment and power turbines posted its third straight quarter of profit growth.

SunTrust jumped 5.6 per cent to $29.50. The Georgia lender that has yet to repay $4.85 billion in US bailout funds reported fourth-quarter profit excluding some items of $185 million, compared with a loss of $248 million in the same period in 2009.

BBT rose 4.8 per cent to $28.39. The North Carolina bank that remained profitable through the financial crisis reported fourth-quarter profit increased 12 per cent on lower credit costs.

Google fell 2.4 per cent to $611.83. The owner of the world’s most popular search engine said co-founder Larry Page will become chief executive officer on April 4th, replacing Eric Schmidt, who becomes executive chairman.

Intuitive Surgical jumped 13 per cent, the biggest gain in the SP 500, to $326.58. The surgical-system maker posted earnings of $3.02 a share.

Warner Music jumped 28 per cent to $6.02.

Bank of America slumped 2 per cent to $14.25. The largest US bank by assets reported a $1.24 billion fourth-quarter loss.

Technology shares had the biggest decline among 10 SP 500 industries, falling 0.7 per cent.

Apple, the maker of iPhones, slumped 1.8 per cent to $326.72.

Microsoft, the largest software maker, declined 1.2 per cent to $28.02. Yahoo!, which owns an Internet search engine, dropped 1.6 per cent to $15.97. Advanced Micro Devices dropped the most in the SP 500, retreating 6 per cent to $7.54. – (Bloomberg)