I think we are about to move back up...
Friday March 13 1:00 PM EST
Wall Street is Mixed Today Despite Good News
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were mixed on Friday despite the market getting a boost from strong earnings from the
world's biggest software company, Oracle Corp., and more good news on the inflation front.
At 12:55 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 0.99 points at 8,658.57 after Thursday's 17-point loss.
The Nasdaq composite index was up 12.02 points at 1,776.82.
Oracle reported after Thursday's close that its fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 11 percent, better than Wall Street had
expected, on improving sales of its database and business software products. Oracle was up 1 1/2 at 29 3/16.
The government reported that falling energy prices sent U.S. wholesale prices lower for the fourth straight month in
February.
The Producer Price Index was off 0.1 percent last month after sliding 0.7 percent in January. The closely watched core PPI,
which strips out volatile food and energy prices, edged up 0.1 percent after declining by the same amount in January.
"The PPI has continued the good news with the low inflation environment," said Chris Dickerson, analyst at Global Market
Strategists.
"We finally got some good news on an earnings reports from a widely watched company with Oracle Corp., but technically
we are pretty stretched," he said. "We expect a profit-driven decline before the market moves higher."
Thom Brown, managing director of Rutherford Brown & Catherwood said the stock market also got some reassuring news
that in February, investors plowed an estimated $19.5 billion in net new cash into stock mutual funds, up from $14.6 billion
in January according to data from the Investment Company Institute.
"March continues to look strong as well," he said. |
