Stock prices jump in early trading

Stock prices jump in early trading

	Published : Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:51 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Stock prices are higher in early trading today after Google Inc. and four Dow Jones industrial component companies extended this week's trend of strong first-quarter earnings.

In the opening minutes, the Dow is up 71.111 to 12,879.74, the Nasdaq Composite has gained 20.99 to 2,526.34, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 4.68 at 1,475.41.

So far, 16 of the 30 Dow component companies have reported financial results from the most recent quarter. Ten of those companies surpassed analyst forecasts, while the other six were either in line with them, or just barely missed. After reining in expectations for the first-quarter earnings season, investors have been pleasantly surprised by the data, and have pushed the Dow back into record territory this week for the first time since February.

Before the market opened Friday, Dow component companies Honeywell International Inc., Pfizer Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and McDonald's Corp. meet or beat analyst forecasts.

Google reported late Thursday a 69 percent jump in first-quarter profit and exceeded analyst expectations -- which the Internet search company has done in 10 of the 11 quarters since its initial public offering. The results helped assuage some investors who had been cautious about the technology sector after disappointing earnings earlier in the week from companies such as Yahoo Inc.

Honeywell, the diversified industrial conglomerate, said Friday its profit spiked 21 percent.

Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, said its profit fell 18 percent due to one-time charges and weak sales of diabetes drug Exubera. However, excluding the one-time charges, the results easily beat predictions.

Caterpillar Inc., one of the world's largest construction equipment makers, said Friday its first-quarter profit fell 3 percent, but earnings per share increased and exceeded Street forecasts.

McDonald's Corp.'s first-quarter earnings surged 22 percent. The profit results were in line with predictions, but the fast-food leader's revenue exceeded them.

Other strong first-quarter earnings reports Friday were oil services company Schlumberger Ltd. and Xerox Corp., which both beat Street expectations. Schlumberger said its profit jumped 63 percent in the first quarter on strong revenue growth in international markets, while Xerox profits jumped by nearly 17 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Investors looked past worse-than-expected earnings from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. released late Thursday. The chip maker's profit was hurt by lower chip sales and prices, but its shares rose in after-hours trading on signs that the price battle between AMD and Intel Corp. is easing, and that AMD is willing to outsource to cut costs.

Gold prices fell, while the dollar was mixed. The U.S. currency is trading near an all-time low against the euro and a 26-year low versus the British pound.

Overseas, China's Shanghai Composite Index -- which made U.S. investors uneasy after it dropped more than 4 percent Thursday -- rose 3.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.46 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.82 percent, Germany's DAX index was up 1.38 percent, and France's CAC-40 was up 1.41 percent.

Oil prices rose, after a sharp drop a day earlier. A barrel of light sweet crude climbed $1.02 to $62.85 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.