Posted on: Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Stocks get boost from optimism on earnings
By Michael J. Martinez
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Confident investors, buoyed by positive earnings reports from the financial sector and bullish corporate outlooks for 2005, returned to the market yesterday after weeks of uncertainty, pushing stocks sharply higher.
This week's earnings reports will give Wall Street a much clearer picture of the economy, analysts said, and could draw even more investors back into the market if earnings and forecasts for the year ahead remain strong.
"I think there's a bias toward optimism on the part of investors, but mostly it's just wait and see," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp.
It was the first time in 2005 that the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq enjoyed back-to-back gains, having risen in Friday's session. The markets were closed Monday.
Oil prices topped $49 per barrel in early trading, but slumped considerably by midday and fell below $48 by the afternoon. A barrel of light crude settled at $48.38, unchanged from the previous session, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly 9 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 2.04 billion shares, compared with 1.72 billion on Friday.
With hundreds of companies reporting earnings this week and next, investors were cheered by results from Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and others, even as earnings from Dow component 3M Co. disappointed Wall Street.
