Thursday, April 21, 2011

Wall Street ends strong week with new earnings attitude

Wall Street posted its first positive week in three, as blowout results from Apple and strong results from a number of industrial companies kept sentiment on the bullish side.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 52.45 points, or 0.42 percent, at 12,505.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 7.02 points, or 0.53 percent, at 1,337.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 17.65 points, or 0.63 percent, at 2,820.16.

The Dow climbed as high as 12,505.99 its highest intraday level since early June 2008.

European shares closed at their highest in more than a week on Thursday as earnings from the likes of AkzoNobel (AKZO.AS) and US tech bellwether Apple (AAPL.O) helped eclipse economic worries.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares rose 0.4 percent to 1,142.56 points, the highest close since April

Financial shares rose, with the STOXX Europe 600 banking index .SX7P gaining 1 percent. Both Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank gained more than 4 percent, tracking the wider market, after sharp declines in the previous session on talks that Greece could restructure its debt.

Tokyo stocks rose for a second straight day, helped by robust results from Apple Inc and upbeat outlooks from other US manufacturers, but mixed signals on supply chain woes kept investors on tenterhooks ahead of Japanese earnings.

The benchmark Nikkei average rose 0.8 percent to 9,685.77, while the broader Topix gained 0.5 percent to 841.72.