NEW YORK, April 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks saw moderate gains for the week as Wall Street digested a slew of generally positive quarterly earnings reports amid economic data.
A string of notable companies, including Merck, Bank of America, Netflix, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UnitedHealth Group, reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report, boosting prices of those stocks.
Expectations for this earnings season are high. The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2018 are expected to rise by 20 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase by 7.5 percent.
So far, the earnings season is off to a good start. Of the 26 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date, 70 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations. This is above the long-term average of 64 percent.
In addition, 76.7 percent of companies have reported revenue above analyst expectations. This is above the long-term average of 60 percent.
However, the rising Treasury yield weighed on the market later this week. The 10-year Treasury note yield on Thursday broke above 2.9 percent, a level that sparked a correction in the U.S. stock market earlier this year, and on Friday it rose to about 2.96 percent, notching the highest level since 2014.
Investors also kept a close eye on the Federal Reserve's Beige Book. According to the Beige Book released Wednesday afternoon, economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace across the 12 Fed Districts in March and early April.
Outlooks remained positive, but contacts in various sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation expressed concern about the newly imposed and/or proposed tariffs.
On other economic news, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March came in at 494.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous month and beating market consensus.
Business activity grew at a solid clip in New York State. The headline general business conditions index, at 15.8, remained firmly in positive territory, although its seven-point decline from its March level pointed to a somewhat slower pace of growth.
U.S. privately-owned housing was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,319,000 since March, beating market estimates.
U.S. industrial production rose 0.5 percent in March, above market consensus of 0.4 percent, and the index advanced 4.5 percent at an annual rate for the first quarter of 2018 as a whole.
In the week ending April 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 232,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level.
For the week, all three major indices posted moderate gains, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq going up 0.4 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
