U.S. Market
Stocks are mostly up at midday on news that the U.S. gross domestic product
rose higher than expected. The Commerce Department reported GDP increased 5.7% on a seasonally adjusted annual rate from October through December, which is nearly 1 percentage point higher than 4.8% that economists had forecast during the fall. This is the second straight quarter GDP has risen; it increased 2.2% in the third quarter. However, for 2009, GDP dropped 2.4%, which was the largest annual decrease since 1946, when it dropped 10.9%.
Other signs of growth were revealed when the University of Michigan/Reuters released
consumer sentiment index numbers for full month of Jan uary at 74.4, which was almost two points higher than December figure of 72.5. Additionally, the index showed a 21.6% year-over-year increase from the January 2009 reading of 61.2.
In other economic news, the
employment cost index gained 0.5% in the fourth quarter. However, civilian employment costs increased only 1.5%, which is the smallest year-over-year increase since the government began taking data in 1982.
The
Dow and
S&P 500 were up 0.4% and 0.2% at midday, while the
Nasdaq was even.
Stocks on the Move
Windows 7 and an increase in PC unit shipments drown
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Microsoft's MSFT results yesterday, with quarterly revenue at $19 billion. The Windows unit
reported a 29% revenue gain (which excludes the impact of recognized deferred revenue) to $5.2 billion. This coincided with the consumer PC market, which posted year-over-year growth of more than 20% on a unit basis. However, Microsoft's other divisions did not come in as strong. Shares were down 2.2% at midday.
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