‘Teflon market’ keeps climbing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks continued their upward climb Friday, shrugging off geopolitical concerns and holding gains after a reading on fourth-quarter GDP and March consumer sentiment.

In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 31 points, or 0.3%; the S&P 500 (SPX) index climbed 2.5 points, or 0.2%; and the Nasdaq (COMP) composite gained 9 points, or 0.3%.

Tech stocks were among the biggest movers Friday morning. Shares of Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) were up 5% after the software company reported results late Thursday that were mostly in line with expectations. Dow component IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) was up 1% following Oracle’s results.

Meanwhile Research in Motion (RIMM) shares plunged 10%, after the BlackBerry maker gave weak first-quarter guidance late Thursday. RIMM’s earnings were $1.78 per share, versus the $1.75 a share analysts had expected.

Though unrest in the Middle East and Libya is spreading and Japan continues to deal with the effects of an earthquake, the market generally has trended higher this week.

“This is a Teflon market,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. “It wants to go up, and it doesn’t seem to be stymied by much lately.”

Mostly positive earnings news from the technology sector boosted U.S. stocks on Thursday.

Economy: Investors reacted little to the third and final reading of fourth-quarter U.S. GDP, which came in at 3.1%. The prior estimate had been for a 2.8% growth in the quarter.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for March came in at a reading of 68.2, in line with economists’ expectations of a reading of 68.0-68.2.

Companies: Electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) was the worst performer on the S&P 500, falling 3.5%, after Wall Street analysts downgraded the company following the company’s earnings report earlier this week.

World markets: European stocks were mixed in midday trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 ticked up by 0.1%, while the DAX in Germany and France’s CAC 40 fell by 0.1%.

Asian markets ended the session higher. The Shanghai Composite, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and Japan’s Nikkei all gained about 1.1%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil for May delivery fell $1, or 1%, to $104.57 a barrel.

Gold futures for April delivery fell by $1.40, or less than 0.1%, to $1,433.50 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 3.40% from 3.39% late Thursday.  

First Published: March 25, 2011: 9:45 AM ET