- The Richest Members of the US Congress
- New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step
- Wall Street Jobs Slow to Return Despite Record Profits
- Thanksgiving Week Stuffed With Economic News
- Black Friday Deals May Not Signal Retail Comeback
- Investors to Goldman: Be Less Greedy
- UPS Sets New Rates For 2010
- Victoria's Secret Hopes to Rekindle Desire for Lingerie
- 'New Moon' Takes Record $72.7M Box Office Bite
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Holiday Tipping: Who And How Much
- Deep Discounts Should Make It a Very Tech-y Holiday
MOST SHARED
- Analyze This?
- Realty Check: USDA Home Loans
- Health Care Bill Nears Test Vote
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Dems Snare 60 Votes to Move Ahead on Health Care
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- Health Care Bill Clears First Senate Hurdle
Text Size 
Stocks clawed higher Friday as solid earnings from Disney and JCPenney helped offset worries about a drop in consumer sentiment.
It was a wobbly morning: Stocks started the day higher, then retreated, then made another push higher.
The Dow snapped a six-day winning streak Thursday, sliding nearly 1 percent, but is still on track to finish up for the week.
Reuters and the University of Michigan reported their gauge of consumer sentiment dropped to 66 in November, its lowest level in three months and well below the 71 economists had expected.
Earlier, a report showed the US trade deficit swelled to its highest level in more than 10 years as import prices climbed 0.7 percent.
The news was good from overseas: Germany and France both logged their second straight quarters of growth. And IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he doesn't see a double-dip recession.
Disney [DIS
Loading...
()
] was the biggest gainer on the Dow after the entertainment giant beat expectations for both earnings and revenue after the bell Thursday.
Merck [MRK
Loading...
()
] and Travelers [TRV
Loading...
()
] rounded out the Dow's top three.
J.C. Penney [JCP
Loading...
()
] gained after the department-store operator reported its profit fell but raised its full-year forecast.
 |
This came a day after Wal-Mart [WMT
Loading...
()
] beat earnings expectations but delivered a light holiday forecast.
Elsewhere in retail, teen chain Abercrombie & Fitch [ANF
Loading...
()
], which has been hard hit by the recession, beat earnings expectations. High-end retailer Nordstrom [JWN
Loading...
()
] missed Wall Street's profit target but raised its full-year outlook.
JPMorgan shares [JPM
Loading...
()
] slipped after CEO Jamie Dimon said no bank should be considered too big to fail. Such an idea is "politically, economically and ethically bankrupt,'' Dimon wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Dollar General [DG
Loading...
()
] rallied in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares priced last night at $21 a share. The IPO raised $716 million.
Qualcomm shares [QCOM
Loading...
()
] rose after Wells Fargo upgraded its rating on the stock to "outperform." The stock is a good way to play all the smartphones if you don't want to call a winner, since their chips are in most smartphones, Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt said earlier this week on Fast Money.
Some big M&A news from overseas: British Airways [BAY-LN Loading... ()] and Iberia announced a $7 billion merger that would create the world's third-largest airline by revenue.
And, Liberty Global is planning to acquire Unity Media, Germany's No. 2 cable operator in a deal worth $3 billion.
An interesting deal on this side of the pond: Playboy [PLA Loading... ()] is apparently in talks to sell itself to Iconix [ICON Loading... ()], which owns the Candies, Joe Boxer and Rocawear brands.
Oil was below $77 a barrel after Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi says the Saudis will double their oil refining capacity by 2015.
Gold was around $1,107 an ounce, after touching an all-time peak of $1,122.85 yesterday, and the dollar edged higher against the euro but dropped against the yen.
Still to Come:
FRIDAY: NY Fed conference on financial intermediation; consumer sentiment; Nicholas Cosmo court appearance; Fed's Evans speaks
Send comments to .
- Technology can make or break a fortune in the world of alternative energy.
- Many people are facing the holidays with substantially smaller incomes. Here’s how some are adapting.
- Jim Cramer is a proponent of stocks that pay healthy dividends, and here are his top five dividend plays.
- From salt, to lip balm to envelopes, it turns out that bacon flavoring can sell almost anything.
- The homebuyer's tax credit jacked sales for a while, but 2010 is looking weak. Now what?
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes