| GEO Business | GE lifts Dow, S&P 500 | Updated at: 1505 PST, Saturday, January 22, 2011
 NEW YORK: The Dow and S&P 500 rose on weekend as General Electric Co's earnings put a positive tone on the economic recovery, snapping a two-day losing skid for the benchmark index.
The Nasdaq was pulled lower by Google, ending a week marked by investors pulling back from outperforming technology shares. Shares of General Electric, considered a bellwether for the economy and corporate America, rose 7.1 percent to $19.74 and hit their highest intraday level since November 2008. The stock, the top positive in the Dow, also scored its biggest daily percentage jump since March 2009.
GE reported stronger-than-expected earnings, helped by the recovery of its finance arm and a rise in revenue at its industrial units, including a sharp pickup in sales of locomotives. "Look at the two stocks, where they've been and where they are. GE has been under a tremendous amount of pressure before all this started," said Doreen Mogavero, CEO of Mogavero, Lee& Co. in New York.
"Google has acted very well throughout, so there may be a little bit more room for growth in GE, might be the thought." The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.04 points, or 0.41 percent, to end at 11,871.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 3.09 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,283.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 14.75 points, or 0.55 percent, to close at 2,689.54.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.7 percent, the S&P lost 0.8percent and the Nasdaq dropped 2.4 percent. Even with Friday's advance, the S&P snapped a seven-week streak of gains. But the Dow managed its eighth consecutive weekly gain, its longest streak since the March through April run in 2010, in which the index hit a high that stood for six months. The S&P 500 is up 8.7 percent since the start of December, but the index lost more than 1 percent over the past two days. | |  | |
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