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Today's Business Headlines - Market Close from MSNBC.com
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Market Closing Prices
DJIA: 10600.51 +46.66
NASDAQ: 2140.46 +31.38
S&P 500: 1139.83 +7.78
AMEX: 1183.74 -2.19
Wall Street Watch: Complete coverage
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032221/
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Business
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Positive earnings buoy stocks
Stocks advanced Friday in choppy trading as investors weighed positive earnings
statements, including a strong quarter from General Electric Co., against muddled
economic data.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/
Consumer sentiment highest since 2000
U.S. consumer sentiment jumped in early January to its highest level in more than
three years as stock indexes hit nearly 2-year highs and job-seekers felt more
confident a strengthening economy would help them find work.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3978265/
GE reports higher fourth-quarter profit
General Electric Co. reported fourth-quarter profits rose 47 percent as industrial
orders rose strongly and a majority of the company's businesses achieved double-digit
earnings growth.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3977432/
Industrial production edges up
Industrial production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose by only 0.1
percent in December, marking a slowdown after a sizable ramp up in activity the month
before.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3978035/
Business inventories rise
America's businesses - keeping a close eye on economy's pulse - boosted their
stockpiles by a modest 0.3 percent in November, a sign that companies are betting the
rebound will be lasting.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3977795/
FT: Japanese grocery chain to slash jobs
Seiyu, the troubled Japanese supermarket group in which Wal-Mart holds 37.8 percent,
announced on Friday cuts of up to a quarter of its full-time workforce as part of an
ongoing reorganization.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3979805/
Home Depot to upgrade stores, open others
The Home Depot said Friday it will spend $3.7 billion in 2004 to modernize its stores,
upgrade technology and open 175 new stores - down from the 200 openings in each of the
past three years. It also raised its estimate of earnings growth for fiscal 2003.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3978709/
Ex-banker Quattrone fined, suspended
Former star investment banker Frank Quattrone on Friday was fined $30,000 and
suspended from working in the securities industry for one year by a securities
industry regulatory panel that said he interfered with an investigation.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3979354/
Adecco unveils widespread accounting flaws
Adecco SA's finance chief resigned on Friday as it revealed widespread accounting
flaws in its North American business, but the employment agency stopped short of
telling investors the scale of the damage.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3977447/
Continental CEO Bethune to retire this year
Gordon M. Bethune, the colorful and blunt CEO who helped restore Continental Airlines
Inc.'s financial health over the past decade, plans to retire this year, and four
company board members are also leaving, according to published reports.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3977445/
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