Stocks edge higher after Friday selloff

Wall Street drifted to a modestly higher finish Monday as investors sought bargains after last week’s selloff and disappointing earnings in the financial sector raised fresh concerns about corporate profits.

Surprisingly strong results from Ford Motor Co. followed by an extensive restructuring announcement kept buyers in the market despite another sub-par earnings report from a major bank, this time from Bank of America Corp.

Yet despite the gains, there was a sense of increasing sobriety on Wall Street after Friday’s 213-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, and trading was light and erratic. But the fact that the markets did not dramatically continue Friday’s selling was a good sign of investor confidence, analysts said.

“You’re seeing a little bit of buying come in today, which you’d expect after a selloff,” said Jay Suskind, head trader at Ryan Beck & Co. “The market is looking at what happened Friday rationally, and now it’s just a wait-and-see on how other bellwether companies do on their earnings.”

The Dow rose 21.38, or 0.2 percent, to 10,688.77.

Broader stock indicators were narrowly higher. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 2.33, or 0.18 percent, to 1,263.82, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.77, or 0.03 percent, to 2,248.47.

Bonds were little changed after a morning selloff, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.36 percent from 4.35 percent late Friday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices edged lower.

Crude oil prices fell despite continued tensions in the Middle East and Nigeria. A barrel of light crude settled at $68.10, down 38 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In a light week for economic data, investors were disappointed in the Conference Board’s latest index of leading economic indicators for December, which rose just 0.1 percent. The index, a measure of future economic growth, was expected to rise 0.2 percent after an 0.5 percent rise in November.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 7 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, where preliminary consolidated volume came to 2.34 billion shares, compared with 2.13 billion traded on Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.22, or 0.46 percent, to 707.82.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average tumbled 2.14 percent. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent, France’s CAC-40 fell 0.45 percent for the session, and Germany’s DAX index slipped 0.01 percent.