Friday, July 15, 2011

Google lifts Wall Street in otherwise rough week

Google's blowout quarter led the Nasdaq higher but mounting uncertainty about the government's ability to reach a debt-reduction deal may keep investors at bay in the coming week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 42.61 points, or 0.34 percent, to end at 12,479.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 7.27 points, or 0.56 percent, to finish at 1,316.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 27.13 points, or 0.98 percent, to close at 2,789.80.

European stocks slid and posted their biggest weekly loss in four months, with peripheral European shares knocked lower ahead of the results from Europe's bank stress tests which came out after the bell.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 0.2 percent lower at 1,086.90 points, posting a weekly loss of 2.5 percent, the index's heaviest weekly fall since mid-March.

The Nikkei share average rose, buoyed by European investors scooping up cyclical shares, but was capped by the top of the narrow range it has traded in for most of the week, with the majority of big players on the sidelines ahead of bank stress tests in Europe.

The benchmark Nikkei rose 0.4 percent to 9,974.47 after opening marginally lower. The Nikkei has spent most of the week trapped between resistance at 10,000 and immediate support at its 200-day moving average, around 9,901.