DPA
New York, April 26 (DPA) US stocks rose Friday and ended the week in positive territory, led by financial shares buoyed by Fannie Mae’s brighter earnings forecast. The climb came despite a drop in a key consumer confidence index from Reuters and the University of Michigan, while Microsoft’s poor earnings report Thursday night led technology stocks lower on the day.

Morgan Stanley projected earnings for Fannie Mae, the largest US mortgage lender, would beat estimates in 2009 as the credit crisis hitting financial institutions in the US slowly comes to an end.

American Express shares climbed despite the company posting an 11-percent fall in first-quarter profits Thursday night. The earnings report, amid a possible recession in the US, was better than analysts had predicted.

Most energy companies also saw gains as crude oil climbed more than two dollars to 118.52 dollars per barrel in New York trading and petrol prices in the United States reached a new record.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.91 points, or 0.33 percent, to 12,891.86. The broader Standard & Poor 500 Index was up 9.02 points, or 0.65 percent, to 1,397.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.99 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,422.93.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.33 percent, the S&P 500 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq 0.8 percent.

The dollar rose against the euro to 63.98 euro cents from 63.77 euro cents Thursday, and to 104.43 Japanese yen from 104.24 yen.
DPA