U.S. stocks rose
18.10.2011 16:36:00
U.S. stocks rose, erasing an early decline, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said lender recapitalizations will be discussed this weekend and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) rallied as it swung to a third-quarter profit.
Stocks fell earlier as Moody’s Investors Service said France’s Aaa credit rating is under pressure from deterioration in debt metrics and the potential for additional liabilities from the Europe’s debt crisis. Data showed that China’s economy grew 9.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 2009.
In the U.S., wholesale prices rose more than forecast in September, boosted by gasoline, food and trucks.
The S&P 500 fell yesterday, after the biggest weekly gain since 2009, as financial shares slumped and the German government damped optimism of a quick fix to Europe’s debt crisis.
Dow 11,461.37 +64.37 +0.56%, Nasdaq 2,629.67 +14.75 +0.56%, S&P 500 1,211.03 +10.17 +0.85%
Financial shares gained the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index among 10 industries, adding 1.7 percent as a group. Bank of America rose 5.7 percent to $6.38. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan has presided over a 55 percent drop in the stock this year.
A gauge of homebuilders in S&P indexes jumped 4.4 percent as data showed that industry sentiment increased more than forecast. Homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. added 5.4 percent to $15.95, while Lennar Corp. advanced 4.6 percent to $15.24.
IBM slumped 4.7 percent to $177.82. Revenue showed slowing growth in IBM’s software, hardware and services businesses. Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano is focusing on areas such as business analytics, emerging markets and cloud computing to boost sales amid sluggish economic expansion.