IBM Gains, Google Falls as Stocks End Mixed

Stocks ended the day mixed on Friday, as traders digested earnings reports from IBM (NYSE: IBM), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and financial companies.

IBM and Google both beat Wall Street expectations, but traders had differing reactions to the two tech bellwethers.

IBM shares gained 4.3% after the company blew past earnings estimates and raised earnings guidance, even though revenues were a little lighter than expected.

But Google lost 2.8% despite beating on the top and bottom lines, as traders fretted about slowing ad sales.

The broader market was mixed, as disappointing results from GE (NYSE: GE) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) sent the S&P to a slight loss. Still, it was the best week for stocks in four months, with the major averages up 7% for the week.

Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) rose 4% on reports that it is nearing a search ad partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

After the close, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) rose on news that the company will be added to the S&P 500.

Next week will see a slew of earnings reports from big names in the technology sector, with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft, Yahoo, Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), AMD (NYSE: AMD), Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), EMC (NYSE: EMC), VMware (NYSE: VMW), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) set to report quarterly results.

The Nasdaq added 1 to 1886, the S&P 500 slipped a fraction to 940, and the Dow climbed 32 to 8743. Volume rose to 5.13 billion shares on the NYSE, but decline to 1.91 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a few shares on the NYSE, and by a 15-11 margin on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 43% on the NYSE, and 54% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 53-51 on the NYSE, and 60-20 on the Nasdaq.