US stocks have staged five consecutive weeks of gains, but analysts asked investors to brace for a tough ride as earnings results of key recession-battered companies emerge in the coming weeks.
Shares ended the holiday-shortened week on a high note with the blue chip Dow index posting a stunning three-digit gain on Thursday on the back of projections by banking giant Wells Fargo of a record first-quarter profit.
Friday was a market holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.82 percent to finish the week at 8,083.38, its highest closing level in two months.
The Dow’s fifth weekly gain is the best performance since fall 2007.
The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.67 percent to 856.56 over the week, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 1.89 percent to 1,652.54.
The corporate earnings reporting season for the first quarter began on Tuesday with US aluminum giant Alcoa declaring a hefty US$497 million net loss on plunging prices for the key metal amid the global economic downturn.
Its second consecutive quarterly loss was higher than expected by most analysts and underscored the depth of the 16-month-old US recession flooding listed companies with red ink.
Following Alcoa’s result, the markets turned cautious on light trading ahead of financial results of other key companies, including financial institutions such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs the coming week.
But Wells Fargo, scheduled to announce its results on April 22, made a surprise announcement on Thursday that it expected a “record” net income of some US$3 billion for the first quarter, trouncing Wall Street estimates and sparking a rally before market closed the week.
The US budget deficit accelerated last month to hit a record nearly US$1 trillion just halfway through the current fiscal year, as the US government moved to bail out troubled institutions, government data showed on Friday.
The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on Oct. 1 was US$956.8 billion, according to the Treasury’s monthly statement of receipts and outlays.
Receipts during the six-month period to last month were US$989.83 billion, while outlays amounted to nearly US$1.95 trillion, the data showed.
Last month’s US deficit of US$192.27 billion was higher than the US$160 billion expected by most analysts, coming on the back of money poured by US President Barack Obama’s administration to rescue financial institutions.
All six months of the fiscal year so far recorded red ink. The last time the US plunged into a consecutive six month deficit was during the October 2003 to March 2004 period, officials said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS