US stocks stocky as busy earnings week kicks off

US stocks finished higher on Monday as solid earnings reports from Halliburton and others kicked off the busiest week of the quarterly earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 40.71 (0.25 per cent) to 16,449.25. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 7.04 (0.38 per cent) to 1,871.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased 26.03 (0.64 per cent) to 4,121.55. Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, said earnings have so far been solid enough to steady the market. “So far the disappointments have been quite limited.” Of the firms in the S&P 500, 159 report earnings this week, making it the busiest week of the quarter, Goldman Sachs said in a note. Operating earnings at Halliburton rose to 73 cents per share, two cents better than expectations. The company reported strong revenue increases in most regions, including North America and Middle East/Africa, making up for declines in Latin America. Halliburton shares rose 3.3 per cent. Other oil services stocks also benefited, including Baker Hughes (+2.8 per cent) and Schlumberger (+1.9 per cent). Ford Motor slipped 0.1 per cent following reports that Alan Mulally will likely step down as chief executive in 2014 and be replaced by chief operating officer Mark Fields. A report that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is considering a $ 100 billion takeover of British rival AstraZeneca lifted Pfizer 2.0 per cent. US shares of AstraZeneca jumped 8.8 per cent. Kimberly-Clark, which makes Kleenex and Huggies among other personal-care products, dipped 1.4 per cent despite earnings that bested expectations by a penny at $1.48 a share. But sales slipped 1 per cent from a year ago to $5.28 billion, below the analyst projection of $5.32 billion. Toymaker Hasbro reported earnings per share of 14 cents compared with expectations of 10 cents. Revenues came in at $679.5 million, below the $690.2 million projected by analysts. Shares rose 1.9 per cent. Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury held steady at 2.72 per cent, the same level as Thursday. The 30-year edged higher to 3.53 per cent from 3.52 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely, according to AFP.