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U.S. stocks close higher, with S&P 500 continuing record rally on upbeat earnings

Posted on October 19, 2013

NEW YORK, (PNA/Xinhua) — U.S. stocks ended higher Friday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock Index refreshing all-time high for the second consecutive day, bolstered by upbeat earnings reports from notable U.S. corporations.

The S&P 500 rose 11.35 points, or 0.65 percent, to 1,744.50. It closed at a record Thursday, after U.S. Congress struck a last-minute deal to reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling late Wednesday.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 28.00 points, or 0.18 percent, to 15,399.65 points, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index surged 51.13 points, or 1.32 percent, to 3, 914.28 points.

For the week, the Dow, S&P and the Nasdaq rose 1.1 percent, 2.4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.

Morgan Stanley shares increased 2.63 percent to US$ 29.69 after the investment banking giant reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings before the opening bell. Its net revenues hit $ 7.9 billion for the third quarter, up 50 percent year on year.

Google shares cracked $ 1,000 for the first time, closing 13.80 percent higher at $ 1,011.41 apiece after the search engine giant reported strong earnings late Thursday. Google reported consolidated revenues of $ 14.89 billion for the third quarter of this year, up 12 percent from a year ago.

Wall Street was also boosted by wide expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would delay its tapering of stimulus monetary policy given the damage caused by the 16-day federal government shutdown that ended Wednesday. Most traders believe the U.S. central bank will not start to taper until early 2014.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said Friday that there will not be a tapering in the Fed’s upcoming meeting on Oct. 29-30, noting that he does not see any economic signs for the central bank to do it.

Also, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 7.8 percent in the third quarter, up from 7.5 percent in the second quarter, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, which added positive sentiment to the U.S. market. The latest figure marked the fastest pace of growth this year.

Bill Adams, a senior international economist at the Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, attributed the pick-up of China’s economic growth mainly to robust housing investment and recovering manufacturing activity. He also predicted that China’s GDP is likely to grow at about 7.8 percent year on year for the fourth quarter of this year in an interview with Xinhua.

On other markets, oil prices moved up Friday, as encouraging economic growth from China boosted hopes for crude demand.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery increased 14 cents to settle at $ 100.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange,while Brent crude for December delivery gained 83 cents to close at $ 109.94 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar was mixed with little changes against major currencies Friday, and traded at relatively low levels on speculations of the Fed’s delay to taper monetary stimulus program.

The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against six major currencies, once dropped to 79.48, the lowest since early February. It ended flat from the previous session. The dollar also hit the lowest level against the euro since February.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3679 dollars from 1.3676 dollars of the previous session. The dollar bought 97.87 Japanese yen, higher than 97.85 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped on profit taking Friday, but ended the week with a gain of 3.7 percent. The most active gold contract for December delivery slipped $ 8.4, or 0.63 percent, to settle at $ 1,314.6 dollars per ounce.

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