- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks
finished higher after a topsy-turvy session on Friday and the Dow index
was up for the week as investors looked through a battered market for bargains,
including Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O .
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- The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average .DJI logged
its best weekly gain since mid-May. But traders are still wary of nasty
surprises after a roller-coaster week that saw stocks at 5-year lows on
record trade volumes amid a cloud of worries over corporate profits and
accounting scandals.
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- "I would argue the market is very, very undervalued,"
said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp. "There
is a strong case that could be made that the bear market is over, but there
still has been no capitulation yet of the magnitude that we saw at other
bear-market bottoms. That's the problem."
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- The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 22.04 points, or
1.78 percent, to 1,261.73, according to the latest available figures. The
index gained back nearly half of its losses Thursday. The broad Standard
& Poor's 500 .SPX was up 14.16 points, or 1.69 percent, to 852.84.
The Dow Jones Industrial average .DJI rose 78.08 points, or 0.95 percent,
to 8,264.39.
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- Investors tiptoed back into the technology sector after
an almost 4 percent drop in the tech-laced Nasdaq on Thursday. Tyco International
Ltd. TYC.N emerged as another pocket of strength in the market, leaping
more than 45 percent after the troubled conglomerate named a former Motorola
Inc. MOT.N president as its new leader.
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- The late afternoon brought some selling which pushed
stocks lower, as people were quick to take profits. Still, all major indexes
finished the session higher.
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- "We are bottoming here and things are looking up,"
said Michael Kayes, chief investment officer of Eastover Capital Management.
"There are encouraging signs the government is doing their job and
more and more companies are doing what needs to be done. That's the process
of rebuilding."
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- For the week, Nasdaq fell 4.3 percent on the week and
the S&P rose 0.6 percent. The Dow's 3 percent gain for the week was
its best since mid-May. On Wednesday, the Dow and the Standard & Poor's
500 Index each posted percentage gains unseen since October 1987.
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- A report showing U.S. consumer sentiment was bruised
in July but improved in the second half of the month helped lift investor
sentiment a notch. The University of Michigan's final consumer sentiment
index helped ease fears that consumer spending, a main driver of the U.S.
economy, would weaken.
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- Winning stocks outpaced losers about 5 to 3 on the New
York Stock Exchange, and advancing stocks beat decliners 9 to 7 on the
Nasdaq. About 1.8 billion shares changed hands on the Big Board and about
1.7 billion on the Nasdaq. Volume was heavy but less than the average volume
of the past few days.
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- The market has logged some of its busiest days in history
this week.
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- Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O was up $2.52 to $45.35, or 5.88
percent, and helped boost both the Dow and the Nasdaq.
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- Tyco surged $3.78 to $12.03 and ranked as the most active
on the New York Stock Exchange. The troubled conglomerate named former
Motorola President Edward Breen as its new leader. Breen replaces Dennis
Kozlowski, who resigned last month, a day before he was charged with evading
about $1 million in New York sales taxes on artwork purchases.
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- Motorola Inc. MOT.N fell $1.28 to $10.90 after Breen's
departure. The wireless tech giant named as president and chief operating
officer Mike Zafirovski, credited with turning around its mobile phone
business, the world's second largest.
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- Qualcomm Inc. QCOM.O trimmed gains as doubts emerged
about the wireless technology company's forecasts for sales of its mobile
phone chips. Qualcomm soared 7 percent before the open after it posted
earnings and sales that beat expectations. But it was last up 34 cents
at $25.99, 1.3 percent.
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- Sprint Corp. FON.N plunged on rumors the telecommunications
company faced a cash crunch and would not have enough money to pay off
debt, analysts said. Sprint called the rumors of a cash crunch "misinformation,"
but the shares closed off 21.6 percent, or $1.95 at $7.05.
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- Chip gear maker Applied Materials AMAT.O added 9.1 cents
to $14.321. Goldman Sachs upgraded the chip equipment sector to "market
overweight" from "market weight," saying investment from
funds and seasonality may drive a meaningful move in the stock. Among other
sectoral firms covered by Goldman, Teradyne Inc. TER.N rose 26 cents at
$14.33, and Novellus Systems Inc. NVLS.O rose 30 cents at $24.60 but others
fell such as KLA-Tencor KLAC.O , off $1.16 at $37.29.
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- AOL Time Warner Inc. AOL.N , the world's largest media
company, rebounded $1.26 to $10.90. The stock plunged more than 15 percent
on Thursday as Wall Street was focused on a U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission's inquiry into the accounting practices at the online unit.
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- Andrx Corp. ADRX.O lost $3.82 to $17.90. The maker and
distributor of generic drugs reported a loss as legal and regulatory hurdles
delayed the introduction of new copycat medicines and the company recorded
a big charge to settle litigation.
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