Stocks Mixed

albena
20 Apr, 2005
New York City

U.S. tech shares climbed on Wednesday bolstered by better-than-expected earnings from leading companies such as Caterpillar Inc. and Intel Corp.

As the world's largest maker of computer chips Intel Corp. ((INTC)) announced late Tuesday 1Q net income beat expectations, climbing 25%, on soaring chips sales investors felt more secure buying tech stocks.

Early Wednesday, Caterpillar ((CAT)) reported a 38% growth in 1Q net income on bigger sales of the company’s heavy machinery and engines. Net income climbed to $581 million, or $1.63 a share vs. $420 million, or $1.19 a share a year earlier. Revenue grew 29%. Caterpillar also boosted expectations for the rest of 2005.

Search companies also climbed higher: Yahoo's ((YHOO)) stock soared 5% after its 1Q net income more than doubled on strong growth in online advertising and international operations. Yahoo also raised revenue estimates for 2005.

Shares of Yahoo’s competitor Google ((GOOG)) also benefited from Yahoo’s solid earnings and gained 3.4% to $197.95.

The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 3.30, or 0.2%, to 1935.60 in morning trading.

Consumer prices soared 0.6% in March, according to the Labor Department, the biggest surge in five months as all costs rocketed.

Crude-oil prices surged 35 cents to $52.64 a barrel in early trading Wednesday after rising nearly 4% a day earlier.

In London, the FTSE 100 index was recently down, after initially rising on the strength of mining and oil stocks. In Japan, the Nikkei ended up 0.2% at 11088.58 as Intel's results boosted technology stocks and Wall Street's Tuesday gains buoyed sentiment.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 51.43 points, or 0.51%, at 10,178.84. The S&P's 500 Index was up 2.04 points, or 0.18%, at 1,154.82. Nasdaq Composite was up 11.43 points, or 0.59%, at 1,943.79.

Shares UP:

Coca-Cola rose $1.43, or 3.5%, to $42.40.
Johnson & Johnson added 1 cent to 69.05.
Texas Instruments gained 1.25, or 5.5%, to 24.17
Intel advanced 42 cents, or 1.9%, to 22.63
Merrill Lynch rose 80 cents, or 1.5%, to 54.04.
Lucent Technologies gained 25 cents, or 11%, to 2.61.

Shares DOWN:

General Motors dropped 10 cents to 26.09.
Pfizer fell 18 cents to 27.42.
IBM slid 1.17, or 1.5%, to 75.48.
Boston Scientific lost 1.70, or 5.5%, to 29.05.