Stock Market Watch

Stocks End Sharply Higher; Post Biggest Weekly Gains for the Year

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Stocks rallied in trading on Friday as news that Spain will ask for help for its troubled banking sector soon lifted market sentiment. All three major indexes posted their biggest weekly gains of 2012.

The Dow Jones ended the day 0.75% higher at 12,554.20, the S&P 500 ended the day 0.81% higher at 1,325.66, and the Nasdaq ended the day 0.97% higher at 2,858.42. For the week, the Dow Jones rose 3.59%, the S&P 500 rose 3.72%, and the Nasdaq rose 4.04%.


Stocks surged on Friday after European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Contancio told Portugal’s Radio Renascenca that Spain will formulate a request for aid exclusively for banks recapitalization.

Services sector led the gains in the S&P 500 on Friday, ending the day 0.81% higher. Technology sector also rose sharply on Friday, ending the day 0.79% higher. Conglomerates ended the day 0.69% higher, while Industrials ended the day 0.49% higher. Basic Materials and Energy were the only sectors to end the day in red. Basic Materials ended 0.19% lower, while Energy sector ended 0.38% lower.

Among the major gainers in trading on Friday were Molina Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: MOH), which ended the day 26.39% higher at $22.46, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), which ended the day 3% higher at $27.10, Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV), which ended the day 17.63% higher at $28.36, Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), which ended the day 12.10% higher at $19.64, and Optical Cable Corporation (NASDAQ: OCC), which ended the day 30.14% higher at $3.80.

European markets ended mostly lower on Friday, with the FTSE 100 Index in London closing 0.23% lower, and the CAC 40 Index in Paris closing 0.63% lower. Earlier, Asian markets also ended mostly lower, with the Nikkei 225 Index in Japan falling 2.09%.

 








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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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