Wall St: Monday mid-session
STOCKS were higher at the half-way stage, extending last week's rally as investors optimistically awaited first-quarter earnings reports.
Wall Street was coming off its best week of 2004, fuelled by government reports that showed the economy created 308,000 jobs in March. However, some investors remained concerned that if job growth remains at such a high level, it could spur the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates earlier than expected.
At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was 17.63, or 0.2% higher at 10,488.22 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 3.68, or 0.2% at 2,060.85.
Investors were generally upbeat about the start of earnings season, which was expected to start tomorrow with an announcement from industrial giant Alcoa, whose shares rose 23 cents at $36.13.
Altria Group subsidiary Philip Morris will pay up to $1bn to settle charges brought by the European Union that the cigarette maker of complicity in cigarette smuggling. Altria fell 14 cents to $54.73.
J.C. Penney lost 2 cents to $34.81 after it announced it was selling its Eckerd chemists chain to CVS and Canada's Jean Coutu Group for more than $4.5bn. CVS jumped $1.07 to $35.85.
Boeing added 1 cent to $41.85 after the US Air Force announced the aerospace company would be allowed to bid on up to $5bn in rocket contracts.
Nortel Networks said it received a formal order of investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission into the network equipment maker's financial statements. Nortel dropped 32 cents to $5.97.
