S&P

Dow and S&P continue to be fueled by General Electric, Exxon Mobil; but Nasdaq slips

The companies that reported earnings before the markets open on Friday are: General Electric, Bank of America, Schlumberger, BB&T, Air Products and SunTrust Banks.

Stocks rose modestly, boosted by strong corporate earnings from J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), allowing the S&P 500 index to score its seventh consecutive week of gains.

US futures are set to open lower on Friday after a disappointing jobless claims data, which could weigh on sentiment.

(The following was released by the rating agency)Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had assigned its 'AA-' issue rating to the proposed issue of U.S. dollar-denominated senior unsecured notes by CNOOC Finance (2011) Ltd. CNOOC Ltd. (AA-/Stable/--) irrevocably and unconditionally guarantees the notes.

The S&P 500 Index gained 3.69 points, or 0.29 percent, to trade at 1,278.17 at 9.30 a.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.93 points, or 0.28 percent, to trade at 11,704.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 11.50 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,728.49.

Binky Chadha, chief U.S. equity strategist of Deutsche Bank, thinks the S&P 500 will return 23 percent in 2011.

Here are the ten worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 index for 2010.

Here are the ten best-performing stocks of the S&P 500 for 2010.

Home prices in 20 metropolitan cities in the US continued to fall in October with prices in six cities reaching new lows.

U.S. companies are paying dividends at a healthy pace again, but they are unlikely to see the halcyon days from before the financial crisis.

Stock buybacks among companies in the S&P 500 surged by 128.3 percent in the third quarter from the year-ago period, according to data from Standard & Poor's.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: InterMune, YRC Worldwide, Take-Two Interactive Software, Oracle, China Sunergy, Veeco Instruments, Research In Motion, China MediaExpress Holdings, Powerwave Technologies, and MIPS Technologies.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the People’s Republic of China to ‘AA-’ (its fourth-highest ranking) from ‘A+’.

Oracle Corp., one of the world's biggest enterprise software makers, is expected to report better-than-expected numbers, when it reports second quarter results today after the market closes.

Search giant Google could witness a rally in its stock price amid its leadership in search advertising market and soaring adoption of its Android operating system in smartphones and tablets.

Standpoint Research has downgraded American Eagle Outfitters to hold from buy, expressing concerns over the apparel retailer's store count.

NZD/USD has broken below its key support level on Tuesday as dollar's across-the-board strength weighed on the kiwi currency, and at a near 2 month low, the pair is now testing its 100-day SMA on the daily chart. Momentum indicators clearly suggest the pair is in the oversold zone but a strong technical reversal also need the support of good news from the Euro-zone, traders said.

U.S. home prices fell by 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter, according to data from S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Standard & Poor’s said it cut its long-term sovereign credit rating on the Republic of Ireland to 'A' from 'AA-' and its short-term rating to 'A-1' from 'A-1+'.

Credit Suisse expects the S&P 500 index to trade in the 1,100 to 1,300 range, saying that most important potential source of turbulence in equity markets may be the actions of monetary policymakers.