US stocks make modest gains

NEW YORK: US stocks managed modest gains Monday as Wall Street
awaited the unofficial kickoff of the fourth-quarter earnings season,
which came shortly after the closing bell.


After slipping into negative territory in early trade, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average finished the session up 32.77 points (0.26 percent)
to 12,392.69.


The tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite added 2.34 points (0.09 percent) to 2,676.56.


The S&P 500, a broader measure of the markets, rose 2.89 points (0.23 percent) to 1,280.70.






"Blue chips got a modest boost from industrials, but the S&P 500 and
Nasdaq saw only slight gains as traders held their cards close to the
vest ahead of the unofficial start to earnings season that began after
today's closing bell with Dow member Alcoa posting mixed 4Q results,"
Charles Schwab analysts said in a client note.


Aluminum giant Alcoa, the first of the Dow's 30 blue-chip stocks to
report quarterly earnings, posted a loss for the final quarter of 2011
of $191 million as revenue declined and cash was set aside for
restructuring to counter lower metal prices. Full-year profit more than
doubled.


The company announced last week it would close 12 percent of its
global smelting capacity, and on Monday said it would close plants in
Italy and Spain.


Alcoa shares jumped 2.9 percent to $9.42 before the announcement was made.


Europe's debt crisis was on Wall Street's radar, but traders
appeared to shrug off pledges by France and Germany to speed up measures
to address the problems.


The sole US major economic news of the day was a 9.9 percent surge
in consumer credit in November, the biggest increase in a decade.


Credit card spending was up 8.5 percent, while non-revolving loans,
including university and automobile loans, jumped 107 percent.


Bristol-Myers Squibb shares shed 0.9 percent. The drug maker
announced Saturday it had agreed to buy Inhibitex, a biotech firm
specialising in medicines for hepatitis C, for about US$2.5 billion in
cash.


Inhibitex soared 140.1 percent to US$23.70.


Cellphone maker Motorola Mobility fell 0.7 percent after warning fourth-quarter earnings would disappoint.


Automakers were in focus as the annual Detroit auto show got on the
road. General Motors slipped 0.4 percent, while Ford Motor gained 0.8
percent. -- AFP