Stocks were mixed Friday after Amazon.com’s better than expected results and the government’s monthly jobs data weren’t quite enough to sustain the market’s three-day rally.
Amazon’s earnings, sales and forward guidance exceeded forecasts, but the company’s falling operating margins continued to concern analysts, prompting a Bear Stearns downgrade Friday morning and countering a Piper Jaffray upgrade. Amazon ended the day 3% lower.
January jobs data were no less puzzling, as weaker than expected jobs growth and stronger than anticipated wage growth painted a mixed inflation picture.
CA gained 7% on 4% sales growth and better than expected guidance.
Aviza and Nextest
surged after the chip equipment makers reversed year-ago losses. Secure Computing
was another big earnings gainer, soaring 30% on its results.
Silicon Motion and Zoran
rose on their earnings too.
But Ericsson fell 6% on cautionary comments, and Bookham
, Rackable Systems
, Occam
and SigmaTel
fell on their results.
The Nasdaq gained 7 to 2475, the S&P 500 rose 2 to 1448, and the Dow fell 20 to 12,653. Volume declined to 2.53 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.94 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18-13 on the NYSE, and 16-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 55% on the NYSE, and 63% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 375-13 on the NYSE, and 193-39 on the Nasdaq.