Nasdaq logs best week in nearly nine months as Google surges
A strong week fizzled to a close Friday as the Standard & Poor’s 500 eked out a small gain. But a few companies made big moves. Google surged after reporting strong results, pushing the Nasdaq to another record high.
It was a quiet end to an eventful week. Markets around the world rallied Monday after Greece and its creditors agreed to a broad framework for a new loan program. Stronger quarterly earnings reports from a range of big companies, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, added more encouragement.
The S&P index rose 2.35, or 0.1 percent, to 2,126.64. The broad-market measure finished the week with a gain of 2.4 percent, its best performance in four months.
The Nasdaq rose 46.96, or 0.9 percent, to 5,210.14, closing out its best week in nine months.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 33.80, or 0.2 percent, to 18,086.45.
Google jumped after reporting profits and sales that topped analysts’ forecasts late Thursday. The results ended six consecutive quarters in which Google’s earnings fell short of analysts’ targets. Google rose $97.84, or 16 percent, to $699.62.
Earnings reports out this week have looked better than Wall Street expected.
Greece’s deal cleared another hurdle Friday when German lawmakers overwhelmingly backed it. The European Union also said it would get Athens enough money for it to keep making its debt payments.
In economic news, the Labor Department reported its consumer price index rose 0.3 percent last month, mainly because of higher gasoline prices. Prices at the pump rose 3.4 percent in June on top of a 10.4 percent increase in May. An outbreak of avian flu drove egg prices up 18.3 percent in June, but overall food prices rose just 0.3 percent. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.2 percent last month.
The June numbers were about what economists had expected.
This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Nasdaq logs best week in nearly nine months as Google surges."