US stocks illustrated their first weekly gain since April on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials closing fairly higher in the face of doubts about Europe’s debt crisis and a reduced speed in the US economy.
Greece’s debt worse situation dominated the headlines for the week. As trading finished on Friday, a fresh worry appeared as Moody’s Investors Service put Italy’s bond ratings on analysis for possible downgrade, citing challenges in economic expansion.
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist of Avalon Partners announced It’s typical of quadruple witching to observe this instability, and a while ago Moody’s broadcasted that Italy is up for a likely downgrade, causing some selling as the euro sold off.
He added that we have came back up a bit so I think it has most to do with the last hour of trading on quadruple witching day.
Stocks commenced the session with bulky gains, enhanced by talks between France and Germany on a possible debt deal for Greece and some strength in one of the day’s economic pointers.
Ahead of the US market open, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that they want a fast solution to the Greek debt circumstances and will work to protect the stability of the euro. They referred to a “Vienna-style” contract, which some analysts thought could be a way to save or at least delay a default of Greece’s debt.
The market will twist higher only if clarity appears in Greece, announcement by Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment strategist at YCMNet Advisors, in an email interview.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA (INDEXDJX:.DJI) on Friday ended up +42.84 points or +0.36% to 12,004.36 with a weekly performance of +52.45 points.
Top advancer of the Thursday trading session was AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) with 34 cents or +1.12% to 30.77.
AT&T Mobility had sued two individuals in federal court in Atlanta, claiming these two people had sent more than 20 million wireless spam messages to AT&T customers.
Atlanta-based AT&T Mobility is looking for a ban against Natalie Stewart and Royce Stewart, both of San Carlos, California, and wants millions of dollars in compensation. From July 2010 through the present, Defendants have swamped AT&T and its subscribers with millions of illegal, misleading and unsolicited wireless spam messages that were received in the form of text messages,” the lawsuit reported, adding the defendants’ “general scheme” is to inform text recipients that they have won a free gift card or can get a free cash advance.
One of the leading financial institution JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) got the second position among the blue chips with a gain of 44 cents or +1.09% to 40.80.
Insurance company Progressive Corporation stated on Friday that it named JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Heidi Miller as a board member and authorized a share buyback.
Miller, 58, will provide services for a term that ends at Progressive’s annual shareholders meeting in April 2012. Miller is president of international operations at JPM and jointly leads J.P. Morgan Global Corporate Bank. She is also a part of the operating committee at JPMorgan.
Decliners were led by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) falling 23 cents or -1.07% to 21.19.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 3.86 points or 0.3%, to end at 1,271.50. That was only 0.52 point higher than its last week closing, but it was sufficient to break a six-week losing streak.
Among the gainer of Friday session, Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (NYSE:SNI) remained on top with $2.62 or 5.88% to 47.14., accompanied by CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG) with $1.07 or 4.67% to 23.98.
Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. (SNI), owner of Food Channel and HGTV, achieved the most in two years after the trust that controls the company required a probate court ruling that would solve the way for share sales.
Michael Nathanson, an analyst with Nomura Securities in New York stated that the appeal filed in a Butler County, Ohio, probate court may be sighted by traders as the elimination of a hurdle to a potential acquisition of Scripps Networks.
The NASDAQ Composite Index (NASDAQ:.IXIC), fell 7.22 points, or 0.3%, to 2,616.5, which is its fifth straight week of losses.
News on Greece also overshadowed analysts’s downgrades of BlackBerry makerResearch In Motion Ltd.whose shares tumbled 21%.
Drug-stocks trading was mixed Friday afternoon, with GenMark Diagnostics andMetabolix Inc. being the movers of note.
GenMark Diagnostics, Inc (NASDAQ:GNMK) gained the top position among the NASDAQ companies with $1.70 or +39.35% to 6.02.
The genetic-testing company announced that it plans to offer 7.07 million common shares at $4.25 per share. The transaction, which is set to close on June 22, is predicted to gross the company a little over $28 million.
MBLX shares dropped -4.30% to 6.90. In a federal reporting, Metabolix announced that it was notified on June 13 that due to a lately resignation from its board of directors, it had dropped out of compliance with Nasdaq rules that requires at least three autonomous members on a board’s auditing committee.
Metabolix responded that it has selected Jay Kouba to the auditing committee. Metabolix added that Nasdaq notified the company on June 16 that it was once again in conformity.
Among the decliners Yuhe International, Inc (NASDAQ:YUII), and Research In Motion Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:RIMM) dropped -38.27% and -21.45% respectively.
Effecting on techs was Research In Motion, whose US shares forced more than 21% to close at $27.75 making the stock’s lowest level in almost five years.
The drop came after the company announced substandard revenue for its first fiscal quarter and slashed its forecast for the rest of the year. Half a dozen brokers downgraded the stock following the results.
At New York Mercantile, gold gained 0.64% or +9.80 and it settled at $1,539.80 per ounce and silver gained +0.98% or +0.35 to reach $35.90 per ounce on electronic trading.
However crude oil at New York fell -2.36% or -2.25 to close at $92.91 on E trading.
