{"id":407794,"date":"2011-04-29T13:57:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T13:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/"},"modified":"2011-04-29T13:57:41","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T13:57:41","slug":"stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Stocks struggle higher at the open"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By CNNMoney staff<\/span>April 29, 2011: 9:56 AM ET<\/span><\/p>\n

NEW YORK\u00a0(CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks edged higher at Friday’s open, helped by strong earnings from Caterpillar and Merck but tech shares remained under pressure following a weak outlook from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.<\/p>\n

The recent modest gains are primarily “a sign that our expectations got reduced to nothing,” said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor’s.<\/p>\n

Investors remain nervous about the economy and inflation. The Fed has been pretty clear that interest rates<\/a> aren’t likely to budge this year. Meanwhile, gold and silver continue to hit new highs as the U.S. dollar keeps sliding, falling to a three-year low against the euro.<\/p>\n

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU<\/a>) rose 27 points, 0.2%; the S&P 500 (SPX<\/a>) rose less than a point, or 0.1%; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP<\/a>) fell 2 points, or 0.1%.<\/p>\n

The Dow was led higher by shares of Caterpillar (CAT<\/a>, Fortune 500<\/a>), which reported better-than-expected earnings on strong demand for bulldozers and other heavy machinery. Shares were up 3%.<\/p>\n

Dow components Chevron (CVX<\/a>, Fortune 500<\/a>) and Merck (MRK<\/a>, Fortune 500<\/a>) also reported better-than-expected earnings before the opening bell.<\/p>\n

Merck’s quarterly profit tripled, on strong drug sales, while Chevron reported a 26% jump in quarterly net income, driven by higher energy prices. Merck shares rose about 1%, while Chevron’s stock fell 0.7%<\/p>\n

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was weighed down by shares of Research in Motion (RIMM<\/a>), which plummeted 14% in early trading after the BlackBerry maker<\/a> warned of weaker sales.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, U.S. stocks rose to multi-year highs<\/a>, as investors looked beyond a series of mixed earnings reports and disappointing GDP and jobless claims reports..<\/p>\n

Companies<\/strong><\/a>: Late Thursday, Microsoft reported a 31% surge<\/a> in quarterly profit, on strong Office and Kinect sales. But not all the news was good, as netbook sales fell 40%. Microsoft’s (MSFT<\/a>, Fortune 500<\/a>) stock slipped 2%.<\/p>\n

Economy:<\/strong><\/a> The Commerce Department said Friday that U.S. personal spending rose 0.6% in March, slightly better than the 0.5% expected by economists. Personal incomes rose 0.5% compared with economists’ forecast of a rise of 0.4%.<\/p>\n

Currencies<\/strong><\/a> and commodities:<\/a><\/strong> The dollar fell against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.<\/p>\n

Oil<\/a> for June delivery was down 2 cents at $112.82 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Gold futures for June delivery hit an intraday high of $1,541 per ounce early Friday, before easing to $1,537.50 an ounce.<\/p>\n

Wyss said that gold prices are benefiting from weakness in the dollar.<\/p>\n

“You have to put your money somewhere,” he said. “Right now people are afraid because of low interest rates and unsustainable budget deficits.”<\/p>\n

Bonds<\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury slipped, pushing up the yield slightly to 3.32%.<\/p>\n

World markets:<\/strong><\/a> On Friday, the London Stock Exchange was closed for the royal wedding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

European markets edged higher in morning trading. The DAX in Germany added 0.3% and France’s CAC 40 was flat.<\/p>\n

Asian markets ended the session mixed. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.8%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei was closed for holiday.\u00a0\"To<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

See more here:
\nStocks struggle higher at the open<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By CNNMoney staff April 29, 2011: 9:56 AM ET NEW YORK\u00a0(CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks edged higher at Friday’s open, helped by strong earnings from Caterpillar and Merck but tech shares remained under pressure following a weak outlook from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nStocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Stocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By CNNMoney staff April 29, 2011: 9:56 AM ET NEW YORK\u00a0(CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks edged higher at Friday's open, helped by strong earnings from Caterpillar and Merck but tech shares remained under pressure following a weak outlook from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Stocks struggle higher at the open\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-29T13:57:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\",\"name\":\"Stocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-29T13:57:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Stocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By CNNMoney staff April 29, 2011: 9:56 AM ET NEW YORK\u00a0(CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks edged higher at Friday's open, helped by strong earnings from Caterpillar and Merck but tech shares remained under pressure following a weak outlook from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion","twitter_image":"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Stocks struggle higher at the open","datePublished":"2011-04-29T13:57:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/"},"wordCount":503,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/","name":"Stocks struggle higher at the open - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif","datePublished":"2011-04-29T13:57:41+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/29\/stocks-struggle-higher-at-the-open\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/money\/images\/bug.gif"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}