Early afternoon on Friday saw the New York equities markets mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite up a bit but the S&P 500 had dropped slightly. The Dow was up 0.1 percent to 11,157.58 and the Nasdaq had added 0.2 percent to 2,344.59. The S&P was down 0.1 percent to 1,299.38. These results put the Dow and the S&P lower for the week by 1.1 percent and 0.3 percent respectively, while the Nasdaq was up 1.4 percent this week. However, all three indices were up over the first quarter, with the Dow and S&P each seeing gains of over 4 percent and the Nasdaq up 6.4 percent on the quarter.
The week was not good for companies sensitive to interest rate concerns after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates once again and sounded like it was ready to do so again next month. Among those affected were Citigroup, which lost 0.7 percent on the week to $47.48. Homebuilder Toll Brothers was down by 1.7 percent to $34.76. In the utilities sector, Exelon dropped 2.8 percent to $53.27.
General Motors also had a bad week, losing 7.2 percent to $22.65 on the announcement that Delphi, which supplies parts to GM, will try to end some contracts with the carmaker. Additionally, Standard & Poor’s said that it could issue another downgrade to GM’s credit rating.
Computer-related stocks did better on the week. Apple Computer gained 4.9 percent to $62.91 on the assumption that Microsoft’s delay in the release of its new operating system would help sales of Apple’s Macintosh during the fourth quarter. Sun Microsystems added 3.6 percent to $5.15 when Morgan Stanley upgraded its stock from “underweight” to “overweight” on the assumption that the company would restructure soon.
Google gained 6.3 percent as the internet company was added to the S&P 500 on Thursday.
The telecommunications sector also saw gains during the week. Nokia was up 0.9 percent this week to $20.67 after it predicted that worldwide sales of handsets will rise 15 percent this year. The new sales estimate also helped Motorola up by 3.4 percent to $23.10. Texas Instruments, which makes chips for mobile phones, added 5.4 percent to $32.57.