Stocks Survive Google Scare

Stocks survived a big earnings miss from Google to close solidly higher Wednesday.

Google lost $30.88, or 7.1%, to $401.78 a share, but blue chips got a boost from strong results from Boeing and Time Warner and better than expected auto sales, as investors continued to shrug off weak fourth-quarter results in anticipation of a first-quarter rebound. Optimism that the Federal Reserve will soon be done raising interest rates is also giving investors confidence.

The day was even something of a positive for Google shareholders, since the stock closed some $50 off its overnight lows and recaptured the $400 mark, which it had traded below for most of the day. Analysts remained generally positive on the stock, with UBS one of the few to issue a downgrade on the disappointing results.

The Nasdaq rose 5 to 2310, the S&P 500 added 2 to 1282, and the Dow gained 89 to 10,954. Volume declined to 2.55 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.32 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17-14 on the NYSE, and 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 61% on the NYSE, and 64% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 298-33 on the NYSE, and 219-21 on the Nasdaq.

Monster rose on its results, but Symantec and MicroStrategy fell on their results.

Research in Motion gained 9% on a patent win in its long-running dispute with NTP.