Investing.com – Wall Street was higher on Friday as technology stocks fell and bank stocks rose on higher than expected earnings results.
The S&P 500 rose 16 points or 0.59% to 2,783.76 as of 10:52 AM ET (15:52 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 201 points or 0.79% to 25,776.44 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was up over 38 points or 0.53% to 7,250.12.
Financial stocks were mostly up. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) reported higher than expected earnings results and said that the tax overhaul will increase future profits by not only reducing taxed, but by stimulating more business. The bank rose 1.12% while Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) was down 0.48% after being hit with litigation fees. Meanwhile BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) surged 2.52% after its fourth quarter results were higher than expected.
Elsewhere Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was down 4.11% after the social media site announced it was overhauling its News Feed. Meanwhile semiconductor Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) fell 1.65% while payments processor Square (NYSE:SQ) decreased 1.58%.
In other news, U.S. retail sales rose while consumer prices posted their biggest gain in 11 months. In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that consumer prices rose 0.1% in December from a month earlier, below forecasts for a 0.2% increase and a 0.4% gain in the previous month. A separate report showed that retail sales rose 0.4% from the prior month, in line with expectations.
In Europe stocks were up. In Germany the DAX rose 41 points or 0.31% while France’s CAC 40 increased 22 points or 0.41% and in London the FTSE 100 rose 29 points or 0.38%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was up 23 points or 0.23% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 rose 14 points or 0.42%.
In commodities, gold futures increased 0.70% to $1,331.80 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was down 0.44% to $63.52 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.75% to 90.97.