US close higher for second week; GE soars on deal news

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By KEN SWEET

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks advanced Friday, capping off a second straight weekly advance for the market. Investors were encouraged by the latest corporate deal news, that General Electric would be selling its long-struggling lending business.

Investors are turning their focus to next week, when corporate earnings ramp up. So far the outlook isn't encouraging. With economic sluggishness in the U.S. and Europe, as wells the rapid appreciation of the dollar, analysts expect first-quarter results to be down 4.6 percent.

"Earnings are not going to be down because the U.S. economy is struggling," said James Liu, global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. "It's going to be because of what has happened in energy and the dollar."

Next week the nation's biggest banks will report their results, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. Thirty-five of the members of the Standard & Poor's 500 will report their results, as well as seven members of the Dow Jones industrial average

FULL story at link.



FILE - This Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, file photo shows the facade of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stocks are edging higher in early trading on Friday, April 10, 2015, as investors pore over the latest corporate earnings. GE jumped after announcing plans to get out of the lending business. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150410/financial_markets-69665dc2b1.html

[kelliekat44]

1. Yeah. Just passing the money around among the 1%. Creates not one job or helps the economy on

any level. Just makes it easier to avoid whatever flimsy regulations that exist.

[CentralMass]

2. They are a bag of immoral scumbags, arn't they. There is probably

a tax incentive or some other tax payer funded windfall involved. GE Capital wormed their way into receiving tarp funds, which they didn't need, through a loop hole.