US markets gain on Friday; trims weekly losses

20 Apr 2013 Evaluate

The US markets edged higher on Friday, trimming weekly losses, as two blue-chip tech giants International Business Machines Corporation and Microsoft Corporation set a contrasting tone for earnings. IBM was the biggest drag after the computer-services provider missed Wall Street forecasts for quarterly revenue and earnings while leading the Dow higher, Microsoft Corporation climbed after the software maker reported third-quarter income that topped Wall Street’s projections. Meanwhile, the House Republican freshman had called President Barack Obama’s newly unveiled budget proposal earlier this week, a blank check for more spending and more debt, ripping into the plan in the GOP’s weekly address. Obama presented the budget plan as a compromise with Republicans, and some Democrats have been highly critical of his inclusion of a different measure of inflation for adjusting social security and other benefits. The White House and lawmakers are now gearing up for what promises to be charged negotiations about raising the US debt limit this summer.

In Europe, Fitch Ratings downgraded the United Kingdom’s long-term issuer default rating to AA+ from AAA, citing slowing prospects for economic growth. One key consideration in the downgrade was the rating agency’s projections that Great Britain’s general government gross debt would hit 101% of GDP before it begins to fall (by contrast nations with the top AAA rating are at about 50%). Further, the nation still struggles from higher-than-projected budget deficits, the agency added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up by 10.37 points or 0.07 percent at 14,547.50, the Nasdaq added 39.69 points or 1.25 percent to 3,206.06 and the S&P 500 gained 13.64 points or 0.88 percent to 1,555.25.

Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Friday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.68%, Tata Motors was up 0.49%, Infosys was up by 0.47% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.34%. On the flip side, Wipro was down 0.35%.

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