Stocks closed mostly higher Thursday as upbeat earnings news from several large U.S. companies encouraged investors.
General Electric, Morgan Stanley and PepsiCo all moved higher after reporting their first-quarter financial results. The major stock indexes spent much of the day hovering between small gains and losses ahead of their scheduled close for Good Friday.
On Thursday:
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 16.31 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,408.54.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 2.54 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,864.85.
The Nasdaq composite added 9.29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,095.52.
For the week:
The Dow is up 381.79 points, or 2.4 percent.
The S&P 500 has risen 49.16 points, or 2.7 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 95.78 points, or 2.4 percent.
For the year:
The Dow is down 168.12 points, or 1 percent.
The S&P 500 index is up 16.49 points, or 0.9 percent.
The Nasdaq composite is down 81.07 points, or 1.9 percent.
