US Stocks Up 6th straight week; Bulls See Hope In Earnings, Economic Data

[link to www.marketwatch.com]

U.S. stocks rose Friday as investors breathed a sigh of relief at earnings reports and a consumer sentiment survey that were not as bad as feared.

Some feared first-quarter earnings reports would puncture the recent stock-market rally, but so far reports bolstered the bulls' argument that the economy and financial system are tentatively finding their feet.
The market digested earnings reports from Google, Citigroup and General Electric Friday on its way to what would be its sixth straight week of gains.

Major indexes traded in a tight range. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recently was up 37, or 0.5%, to 8164, and up 1.2% for the week for its first sixth straight weekly gain since May 2007. The S&P 500 was up 9 at 874, and is also heading for its longest winning streak since May 2007.

The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5 at 1675 and headed for its first sixth straight week of gains since 2005.

Dow and S&P components General Electric and Citigroup both beat analyst estimates with their first-quarter results.
Shares in these two and others have risen even as bearish bets built against them, and about 11% of New York Stock Exchange Composite shares were in the hands of short sellers in late March. The market often stages its biggest advances when traders are at their most skeptical. General Electric was recently up 1.2% to $12.41 and Citi was off 8% to $3.70, but has nearly quadrupled from its bear-market low.

"Going into earnings season you want to see the short level higher because positive surprises will then force those shorts to go long and it gives you a positive momentum," said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at Hartford Financial Group.

Although their shares slipped on Friday, the results were another sign of thawing in the long-running credit crisis after recent upbeat reports from JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, said Steve Auth, executive vice president at Federated Global Investment Management Corp.
"You sort of expected the three big banks would be profitable," thanks to U.S. government rescue measures that effectively allow them to borrow money at no cost, said Auth. "I was a little more worried about ugly surprises showing up at Citi and GE. It's a very encouraging sign that there wasn't anything like that."

Citigroup posted its first profit in 18 months amid surging results from operations that include its investment-banking business, as the company continued to build its loan-loss reserves and said it cut 13,000 jobs so far this year.
GE said first-quarter net income fell 35% on continued woes at its financial operations. Meanwhile, Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said estimated stress-test results indicate the conglomerate won't need to raise additional capital.

On the economic front, the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer-confidence gauge for April showed improvement from March and exceeded expectations.
Traders and analysts say next week will represent a pivotal chapter in the broader earnings season, with 13 Dow components due to report and 140 S&P 500 companies. Among the components of both indexes reporting next week are Caterpillar, United Technologies, DuPont and Microsoft
Analysts' expectations remain bleak overall, including a consensus view that the S&P 500 will show a 37% decline in profits once all reports are in hand for the first quarter, according to S&P's capital Capital IQ unit.

Mike Thompson, managing director at Capital IQ, said he'll be looking for signs that companies are growing their revenue at a faster pace than profit. Such a trend would signal that companies are seeing increased activity from a budding recovery in the broader economy - a scenario that Thompson believes is still further off than many participants expect.

Treasury and gold prices fell as the economic and earnings data whetted risk appetites.

Oil futures inched up 50 cents to trade above $50 a barrel.

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