24 Jan 2009

Mixed moves on Wall Street

12:22 pm on 24 January 2009

The S&P 500 closed higher on Friday but the Dow was down after General Electric warned of an "extremely difficult" 2009.

GE's stock dropped 10.8% to $US12.03.

However, shares in Google Inc rose 5.9% to $324.70 after the company issued quarterly earnings that beat estimates.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 45.24 points, or 0.56%, to 8,077.56.

But Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.45 points, or 0.54%, to 831.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 11.80 points, or 0.81%, to 1,477.29.

Stocks slid on Thursday after a strong rally the previous day. For the week, the Dow dropped 2.5%, the S&P 500 slipped 2%and the Nasdaq fell 3.4%.

JPMorgan Chase gained 5.1% to $24.28 on hopes of further federal aid. Bank of America rose 9.3% to $US6.24. Citigroup rose nearly 12% to $US3.47 on the NYSE.

Trading volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 1.42 billion shares changing hands. About 2.19 billion shares were traded on the Nasdaq.