US stocks have maintained yesterday’s momentum, despite Alcoa getting the results season off to a stumbling start.
After an hour’s trading, the Dow Jones was up 6 at 17,067, the Nasdaq Composite was up 13 at 4,824 and the S&P 500 was a point firmer at 2,014.
“US stocks rose on Friday with the Dow Jones over 17,000 and the S&P 500 back above 2000, as well as its 50 day moving average in a sign that the market correction could have ended,” said Jasper Lawler at spread betting firm CMC Markets.
If markets hold steady today, the major benchmarks will be on track to enjoy the best weekly gains of the year so far.
Alcoa (LON:AA) is not participating in the market advance after it released third quarter numbers after the bell yesterday.
Shares were off 4.7% after the company said economic growth in the People’s Republic is slowing faster than anticipated, which is having an effect on vehicle production and construction.
The company’s earnings came in below expected, at an underlying seven cents a share on revenue of US$5.57bn; analysts covering the stock had expected earnings per share of 13 cents on revenue of US$5.66bn.
Hit even harder has been clothing retailer Gap (NYSE:GPS), which fell out of bed after its quarterly update and the revelation that sales in September were down 1% year-on-year.
Total sales for the five weeks ended October 3 were US$1.46bn, down from US$1.48bn a year ago.
Gap shares shed US$2.36 at US$26.55, as the fashion firm laid on the misery, revealing it now expects its gross margin rate for the third quarter to be similar to the second quarter. In the July quarter, Gap had a gross margin of 37.4%; analysts were predicting 39.6% for the current quarter.
United Continental Holdings (NYSE:UAL) was the best performer, after the United Airlines owner reported consolidated revenue passenger miles of 16.8 billion, up 1.4% from a year earlier.
The shares ascended to US$55.96 from US$52.26 overnight, as it added that available seat miles were also up 1.4%, at 20.3 billion.
International Paper (NYSE:IP) shares were wanted after the company disclosed yesterday it is to offload its 55% interest in a Chinese joint venture focused on coated board, for around US$23mln in cash.