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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Stocks’ upswing cuts week’s losses

Kate Gibson MarketWatch

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks ended higher Friday, trimming weekly losses, while shares of International Business Machines Corp. fell sharply, pressuring the Dow Jones industrial average.

“Earnings are front and center, and to date they’ve been a little on the disappointing side, but I look for expectations to improve, in part because we’ll get results from consumer discretionary,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

The S&P 500 index added 13.65 points to close at 1,555.25.

The S&P 500 was off 2.1 percent for the week, its biggest such hit since November, while the Dow industrials lost 2.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite was down 2.7 percent on the week.

After spending much of the session in the red, the Dow Jones industrial average added 19.60 points to 14,547.51, slammed in large part by IBM, which dropped more than 8 percent a day after the computer-services provider missed Wall Street forecasts for quarterly revenue and earnings.

Shares of Microsoft Corp. climbed 3.4 percent after the software maker reported third-quarter income that topped Wall Street’s projections.

General Electric Co. fell 4.1 percent after the jet-engine manufacturer reported profit in line with estimates.

McDonald’s Corp. slid after the fast-food chain reported first-quarter profit that missed estimates.

The technology-laden Nasdaq composite advanced 36.69 points to 3,206.06, a day after robust earnings from Microsoft and Google Inc., with the latter late Thursday reporting a double-digit increase in net revenue from its core Internet business.

“The market has been a little tough this week. Starting last Friday, things started to get a little rocky, with earnings misses. So IPOs fight to get a little return,” said Jonathan Crane, chairman of KeyBanc Capital Markets’ equity underwriting committee and co-manager on the SeaWorld IPO.