- Mortgage Applications Up as Rates Continue to Decrease
- Tiger Woods Admits 'Transgressions'; Issues Apology
- Wal-Mart Targets Video Games with Latest Price Cuts
- 'Black Swan' Shuns Public Life Because of Bernanke
- Dubai World To Meet with Creditors Next Week
- FHA to Toughen Mortgage Rules in Lenders Crackdown
- Obama to Send More Troops; Seeks Afghanistan Exit
- Blog: Will Whitacre Bring Better Results to GM?
- Geeks Replacing Swashbucklers on Wall Street
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Whitacre Will Change GM, But Will He Bring Better Results?
- Chipmaker Sees Options Upside After a Strong Sector Report
- Treasury Assistance Comes at High Price For GM
- Unemployment to Peak at 10.5%: Moody's Economist
- 8 Stocks to Gain on Obama's Afghan Plan: Analysts
- BofA On Proposed Changes In The Housing Bailout Program
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- November Auto Sales Muddle Along
MOST SHARED
- Cisco Has 84% of Tandberg, Won't Extend Bid
- UK Economy Turned, Inflation to Spike: BoE Economist
- Kohlberg Kravis Bidding for Morgan Stanley's CICC Stake
- Case Closed but Woods Scrutiny Continues
- Australia Regulator Opposes Caltex-Exxon Deal
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Mortgage Applications Up as Rates Continue to Decrease
- Somali Sea Gangs Create Pirate Stock Exchange
Text Size 
Stocks opened mixed Friday. Tech stocks shot out of the gate after Microsoft and Amazon blew past earnings expectations.
The Dow bobbed in and out of negative territory. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1 percent as Microsoft gained 10 percent and Amazon soared 20 percent.
In the morning's economic news, existing-home sales jumped 9.4 percent to their highest level in over two years in September. Economists had expected a more modest rise.
A day after the rollout of its new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
] said it earned 40 cents per share in the previous quarter, well ahead of analyst expectations of 32 cents.
A handful of companies reporting after the bell Thursday blew away analyst estimates. Amazon.com [AMZN
Loading...
()
] led the parade.
American Express [AXP
Loading...
()
] also exceeded expectations as did competitor Capital One Financial [COF
Loading...
()
].
Diversfied manufacturer Honeywell reported before the bell, beating estimates even though profit fell 15 percent to 80 cents per share.
Whirlpool, Schlumberger and Ingersoll-Rand also reported better-than-expected earnings.
Wall Street also was watching a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who called on Congress to act quickly on its overhaul of the financial regulatory system and outlined some of his own ideas.
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will also speak at that conference, with his remarks coming at 11:30 am.
Friday's key economic report comes at 10 am, when the National Association of Realtors puts out its September report on existing home sales. Economists are looking for an increase of 5.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.4 million units, following a 2.7 percent drop in August.
News items of interest: Chrysler Financial will liquidate and go out of business within two years, following the bankruptcies and restructurings of both General Motors and Chrysler.
The European Union has approved Merck's [MRK
Loading...
()
] acquisition of Schering-Plough [SGP
Loading...
()
]. Time Warner's [TWC
Loading...
()
] magazine division Time Inc. is reportedly planning another round of job cuts.
Mining stocks could be in focus as well after Credit Suisse upgraded the group to "benchmark" due to expected growth from China as well as high global liquidity.
The UK economy contracted for the sixth consecutive quarter during the third quarter, making the current recession the longest on record.
- Peter Schacknow contributed to this report.
Still to Come:
FRIDAY: Existing-home sales; Fed's Kohn speaks; Madoff car goes on auction
Send comments to .
- Will the Fed raise rates? Will the dollar continue its slide? CNBC experts weigh in on the year ahead.
- Goldman Sachs has forbidden employees from gathering in private holiday parties of 12 or more.
- Dictionary.com says that of all words searched for in 2009, a synonym for greed was the top gainer.
- Heavily armed pirates in Somalia have set up a sort of stock exhange to fund their hijackings.
- Since its launch in 1998, Google has become a primary force on the Internet. How much do you know about the company?
- Some of the nation's top bartenders offer suggestions on what to serve at holiday celebrations this year.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes