Stocks opened slightly higher on Wall Street on Friday after a trio of positive economic data points, but gains were expected to be modest.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index added 0.2 percent in early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 0.4 percent.
Data showed that Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 trade surplus that was the nation’s second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe’s biggest economy.
And U.S. data showed that the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.
The S.&P. 500 has risen for five straight weeks and is up 5.8 percent for the year. Its advance was helped by legislators in Washington averting a series of automatic spending cuts and tax increases earlier in the year, as well as better-than-expected corporate earnings and data that pointed to modest economic improvement but no immediate change in the Federal Reserve’s stimulus plans.
But the index, hovering near five-year highs, has stalled in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive it further..
“The market has made a big run, a lot of this was anticipated and so now investors are saying, ‘Now what? What do we do for an encore?'” said Terry Morris, senior equity manager for National Penn Investors Trust Company in Reading, Pa. “It has made a big run and it is deserving of rest — in fact, it would probably be healthy if we had a little bit of a pullback.”
McDonald’s said that January sales at established hamburger restaurants around the world fell 1.9 percent, a steeper decline than analysts expected. Shares edged down 0.5 percent.
LinkedIn jumped 10.6 percent after announcing both blow-out quarterly profit and a bullish forecast for the new year that exceeded Wall Street’s already lofty expectations.
According to Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning, of 317 companies in the S.&P. 500 that have reported earnings, 69 percent have exceeded analysts’ expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and a 65 percent average over the past four quarters.
Fourth-quarter earnings for S.&P. 500 companies grew 5 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
On Thursday, comments about the strength of the euro by the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, renewed concern about the euro zone economy and sent global equities lower. On Friday, European stock markets were mostly higher in afternoon trading, while the euro traded around $1.3394.
Wall Street Edges Ahead
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Wall Street Edges Ahead
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Wall Street Edges Ahead
