The US markets climbed higher on Friday, ending the week with the best gains this year, sending the Nasdaq Composite to the highest level since July 2000. Investors shrugged off a surprise drop in industrial production data and focused on a mildly better-than-expected consumer sentiment gauge and earnings reports. The consumer sentiment was unchanged in February, with a preliminary reading of 81.2, which matched January’s, as per reports on a gauge from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters. Separately, the prices paid for imported goods rose 0.1% in January, led by a strong increase in imports excluding fuel, which decreased 0.6% in January. Excluding fuel, import prices rose 0.3 last month, the strongest gain since March 2012.
On the other hand, industrial production dropped 0.3% in January, with the cold weather knocking manufacturing output by 0.8% and mining output by 0.9%, which more than offset the 4.1% surge in utilities output on heating demand. In addition, the Fed knocked down its fourth-quarter estimate of manufacturing production to an annual rate of 4.6% from a previous estimate of 6.2%. Capacity utilization dropped to 78.5% from 78.9%. Also, the Fed made its first estimate of industrial capacity expansion for 2014, as it sees a 2.3% gain after a 1.8% rise in 2013.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 126.80 points or 0.79 percent to 16,154.39, the S&P 500 was up by 8.80 points or 0.48 percent to 1,838.63 and Nasdaq gained 3.36 points or 0.08 percent to 4,244.03.
Indian ADRs closed in green on Friday; Tata Motors was up 1.23%, Infosys was up 0.92%, HDFC Bank was up 0.24%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.23% and ICICI Bank was up 0.20%.