Wall Street report: Friday close

13 April 2012

STOCKS ended five straight days of gains slightly higher on Friday, but technology stocks ended flat as investors drew back after large gains this month.

Upbeat earnings and forecasts from companies such as health insurer Cigna underpinned the market, but problems at mutual fund company Putnam Investments punished the shares of its parent, insurance broker Marsh & McLennan.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 14.51 points, or 0.15%, at 9,801.12. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended up 3.77 points, or 0.36%, at 1,050.71. But the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.48 of a point, or 0.02%, to 1,932.21, based on the latest available figures.

Friday's close marked the first time the Dow scored a gain in each day of the trading week since June. The Dow rose 2.3% for the week and climbed 5.7% in October - its largest monthly gain since April. This was the Dow's seventh month of gains in the last eight.

Nasdaq rose 3.6% for the week and jumped 8.1% for the month, ending October with its largest monthly gain since May.

Cigna surged $9.08, or 19%, to $57.05 after it raised its 2003 earnings outlook and set a 2004 view higher than Wall Street had expected as the company keeps a lid on medical costs. Cigna also swung to a profit for the third quarter from a year-ago loss.

Marsh & McLennan, hurt by the latest Putnam developments, fell $1.75, or 3.9%, to $42.75, after falling as low as $42.15. Putnam is facing a probe into improper mutual fund trading and losing some clients. On Tuesday, state and federal regulators charged Putnam and two of its managers with civil securities fraud. Since then, a string of state pension funds have followed the lead of the Massachusetts and fired Putnam. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has issued a subpoena to Putnam for its documents related to mutual fund trading.

Among the Dow's top percentage gainers were SBC Communications, up 50 cents or 2% at $23.98 and Johnson & Johnson, up 85 cents or 1.72% at $50.33.

Earlier in the day, the stock market also took heart from one closely watched report, which showed business activity in the US Midwest expanded in October for a sixth straight month and at a faster pace, although a touch slower than Wall Street expected.

The University of Michigan said its index of US consumer sentiment rose to 89.6 in October from 87.7 previously, while a Commerce Department report showed consumer spending cooled last month for the first time since February as a boost from tax cuts faded.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in