The Dow Jones Industrial Average was rising more than 28 points, or 0.21%, at 13,539. The blue-chip index has been up for five days out of six.
The S&P 500 was up more than 4 points, or 0.30%, at 1476. The benchmark was putting in its first move of more than 0.1% in a week. The Nasdaq was up more than 12 points, or 0.39%, at 3129.
"We do not expect much out of fourth quarter earnings reporting season," said Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. "Sure, individual company surprises, both good and bad, are going to happen. But overall, looking at companies in the S&P 500, there probably will not be much to get excited about in this modest growth environment that Americans have been living with for the last several years." Paul Pagnato, founder of HighTower's Pagnato-Karp Group, said "we're slightly bullish this year," pending the resolution of the debt ceiling issue in the U.S. March 1 is the deadline for raising the debt ceiling.Getting passed it is "a really, really big thing in the next 45 days. So we are going to be patient in deploying capital to [emerging markets, energy, large multi-national corporations and technology] until that debt ceiling gets resolved," said Pagnato. "But once the debt ceiling gets resolved, we really think the market will move" and move a good 10% this year.He thinks that technology, emerging markets, energy and large multi-national corporations -- but especially technology -- will have more upside than the broad market or the S&P 500 when the issue gets resolved. Bank of America reported fourth-quarter profit of $700 million, or 3 cents a share, beating the average analyst estimate by a penny. Net revenue, however, came in at $18.9 billion, compared with estimates of $21 billion. Shares were shedding more than 2.5% at the open.Citigroup, the third-largest bank in the U.S., missed expectations in the fourth quarter, as higher legal expenses and lower reserve releases hurt profit. Shares were tumbling more than 3%.The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 12 were 335,000, a decrease of 37,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 372,000. The four-week moving average was 359,250, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week's average of 366,000.Continuing claims for the week ended Jan. 5 were 3.214 million, an increase of 87,000 from the preceding week's upwardly revised level of 3.127 million.On average, economists were expecting initial jobless claims to slide to 365,000 and continuing claims to increase to 3.159 million.The Census Bureau said that housing starts rose in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000 from a downwardly revised 851,000 in November. Building permits rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 903,000 from an upwardly revised 900,000.Economists were expecting housing starts to rise to a rate of 890,000 and building permits to come in at a rate of 903,000."This is a strong set of data even though claims does have some caveats with adjustments, so the grand strength is challenged a bit," said David Ader, a strategist with CRT. "Housing starts are quite strong and broad based and even permits, while quiet, offer more single-family gains so a bit of tone there too." At 12:05 p.m. EST, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart speaks at a business forum in New York.The FTSE 100 in London was up 0.44%, while the DAX in Germany was rising 0.82%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed down 0.07% as investors awaited China's fourth-quarter gross domestic product numbers. The Nikkei in Japan ticked up 0.09% as the yen weakened.Gold for February delivery Monday was down $8.60 cents at $1,674.60 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while February crude oil futures were up $1.10 at $95.34. The benchmark 10-year Treasury was down 12/32, raising the yield to 1.866%. The dollar was down 0.09%, according to the U.S. dollar index.In corporate news, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has been grounded in Europe after the United States grounded the planes and ordered a safety review following a series of recent incidents with the aircraft. Shares of the Dow component were sinking 1.8%.Chipmaker Intel (INTC) reports fourth-quarter earnings after Thursday's closing bell and analysts forecast a profit of 45 cents a share, down from 64 cents a year earlier. Shares were up 1.5%.Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) on Thursday announced fourth-quarter earnings that were "essentially unchanged" from the third quarter, but underlying revenue trends were quite positive. Shares were rising more than 2%. Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) of Cincinnati on Thursday announced another quarter of very strong mortgage revenue growth and solid increases in commercial and industrial loan balances. Shares were adding more than 2%.Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares climbed Wednesday following a news report that potential purchasers are evaluating the company's Autonomy and EDS units. Shares were up 0.93% Thursday.EBay (EBAY) posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 70 cents a share, a penny above analysts' forecasts, and 17% higher than adjusted earnings a year earlier. Shares were jumping 3%.UnitedHealth (UNH) booked in-line fourth-quarter earnings of $1.20 a share on revenue of $28.77 billion, as increasing medical costs offset sales growth. Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $28.2 billion. Shares were up 0.78%.K Swiss (KSWS) shares were surging 48% after the casual athletic footwear company agreed to be bought by South Korean retailer E-Land World for $4.75 a share, or roughly $170 million in cash. >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Andrea Tse.
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