NEW YORK — U.S. stocks finished the week higher Friday, helped by mostly upbeat data.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.26 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,410.32. General Electric led with a 3.4 percent gain after the conglomerate raised its quarterly dividend 17 percent, its second increase this year.
Shares of Procter & Gamble advanced 0.5 percent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The firm said Wall Street is underestimating the consumer-products giant’s growth in emerging markets, adding that “the opportunity is enormous.”
The Nasdaq composite gained 0.8 percent to 2,637.54. The S&P 500, which added 0.6 percent to 1,240.40, was up 1.3 percent for the week, while the Dow was up 0.3 percent for the period. It’s been an unusually flat stretch for the stock market. Thursday was the Dow’s fifth consecutive session of moving less than 20 points, the longest such streak since October 2006.
“We’re just drifting slightly higher,” said Brian Lazorishak, portfolio manager and quantitative analyst at Chase Investment Counsel. “People aren’t really pushing to take positions at higher levels, but at the same time, they’re not actively walking away from the market either.”
Friday’s gains came as data showed U.S. consumers felt more upbeat on the economic outlook in early December, while U.S. exports in October surged to their highest levels in more than two years.
“The economic news flow has been one of gradual economic improvement,” Lazorishak said.
The total U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services unexpectedly fell more than 13 percent as the U.S. trade deficit with China narrowed 8.3 percent. Exports to China surged nearly 30 percent to a record $9.30 billion and imports fell slightly to $34.82 billion.
Meanwhile, China’s trade data also topped expectations, with exports and imports both soaring to records in November, while the country’s trade surplus narrowed to $22.9 billion from October’s $27.15 billion. The surplus was greater than economists’ $22.3 billion median forecast.
