NEW YORK — U.S. blue-chip stocks climbed Friday as encouraging earnings from General Electric boosted industrial stocks, overshadowing disappointing corporate reports from Bank of America and some others.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.04 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,871.84.
GE led the measure, soaring 7.1 percent for its best day since March 2009, after the conglomerate’s fourth-quarter profit jumped 51 percent and revenue also beat Wall Street’s estimates with a pickup in orders for big-ticket equipment and services.
The Nasdaq composite fell 14.75, or 0.6 percent, to 2,689.54. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 3.09, or 0.2 percent, to 1,283.35, led by the industrial sector.
For the week, the Dow ended up 0.7 percent, its eighth straight week of gains. The S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent, breaking a seven-week win streak. The Nasdaq dropped 2.4 percent, its first down week in three.
A round of largely encouraging earnings reports late Thursday and early Friday boosted market sentiment.
“GE’s earnings were phenomenal,” said Dick Del Bello, senior partner at Conifer Group, especially given the breadth of the company’s business, which showed improvement across the board, he noted. “The industrials are where we have a chance for jobs and manufacturing in the U.S., (so) GE earnings in particular have a very positive effect not only on the market, but also on people’s outlook for the economy.”
Even a small group of earnings disappointments were not enough to undermine the market’s earnings-induced giddiness.
BofA shares fell 2 percent after a surprise fourth-quarter loss, weighed upon by charges from pre-announced settlements and write- downs related to mortgage problems. But other banks’ shares rose.
Concerns over the euro zone’s health eased as German business sentiment soared to an all-time high.
