Page 24 - Aruba Today
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BUSINESSSaturday 30 January 2016
Wall Street soars to finish tough month; tech stocks climb
companies and banks also tations. The tech giant
made large gains, and
the price of oil rose for the posted strong results from
fourth day in a row.
The U.S. government said its cloud computing busi-
Friday that the economy
slowed in the fourth quar- ness and the unit that sells
ter, a possibility that had
worried investors. But its PC software and Surface
estimate of the country’s
gross domestic product tablets and Xbox game
was about equal to ana-
lysts’ forecasts and didn’t consoles.
hurt stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial Visa and MasterCard both
average surged 396.66
points, or 2.5 percent, to rose after reporting solid
16,466.30. The Standard &
Poor’s 500 index rose 46.88 results. Visa climbed $5.16,
points, or 2.5 percent, to
1,940.24, as more than 480 or 7.4 percent, to $74.49
of its component stocks
rose. The Nasdaq compos- and MasterCard picked
ite index jumped 107.28
points, or 2.4 percent, to up $5.60, or 6.7 percent, to
4,613.95.
Stocks made some big $89.03.
gains in the last two weeks,
but still finished January E-commerce company
with hefty losses.
Microsoft added $3.04, or Amazon took its largest
5.8 percent, to $55.09 af-
ter its fourth-quarter profit one-day slide in more than
and revenue beat expec-
a year. Amazon’s quarterly
profit more than doubled,
but it still fell short of Wall
Street’s forecasts because
of increased costs. Some
Traders Glenn Kessler, left, and Gregory Rowe, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock of those related to its Fulfill-
Exchange. Stocks soared on the last trading day of January, with Microsoft, Visa and other tech
stocks making the biggest gains in a broad market rally. ment by Amazon service,
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) which handles shipping
for sellers and makes them
eligible for Amazon Prime
MARLEY JAY gains in a broad market Japan moved to stimulate shipping. The stock lost
AP Markets Writer rally. the economy, and Europe-
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks Indexes rose throughout an markets also rose. In the $48.35, or 7.6 percent, to
soared on the last trading the day and finished with U.S, tech stocks climbed
day of January, with Micro- their biggest gains in about following strong fourth- $587.
soft, Visa and other tech five months. Asian stocks quarter results from Micro-
stocks making the biggest jumped after the Bank of soft and Visa. Materials Honeywell advanced
$5.23, or 5.3 percent, to
$103.20 following its fourth-
quarter report, and Gener-
al Electric added 89 cents,
Xerox reports sales decline; plans to split company or 3.2 percent, to $29.10.
Xerox said it will split into
two publicly traded com-
The Associated Press outsourced business ser- Dec. 31, but revenue fell 8 payment processing and panies after pressure from
(AP) - Xerox reported its vices to corporate custom- percent from a year earlier. other services. The latter
15th consecutive quarter ers. Xerox said Friday that it The Norwalk, Connecticut- has about 104,000 employ- activist investor Carl Icahn.
of declining sales on Friday will spin off the services op- based company said net ees and produced about
and announced plans eration it acquired when it income rose 43 percent to $7 billion in revenue last Its stock gained 52 cents,
to split the company into bought Affiliated Comput- $285 million, on sales of $4.6 year. Names and leader-
two businesses. er Services Inc. for nearly billion. Earnings amounted ship of the new companies or 5.6 percent, to $9.75.
The move will reverse a $6 billion in 2010. to 27 cents per share, or 32 are still to be determined.
six-year-old effort by the Xerox reported better- cents a share after adjust- Xerox and Icahn reached The Commerce Depart-
printer and copier maker than-expected earnings ing for amortization costs. a deal on the governance
to boost sales by providing for the quarter that ended Analysts surveyed by Zacks of the business outsourc- ment said U.S. gross domes-
Investment Research were ing company. Under the
expecting earnings of 29 breakup, Icahn will get to tic product grew only 0.7
cents a share. name three of the nine di-
Xerox has been under pres- rectors on that company’s percent over the last three
sure from activist investor board. A search is also go-
Carl Icahn, who has ar- ing to be started for an ex- months of 2015, while ana-
gued that its business out- ternal candidate to serve
sourcing service would be as CEO of the business. lyst expected 0.8 percent.
more valuable as a stand- Icahn will be allowed to
alone company. Xerox said choose an individual to ob- The agency said consum-
Friday that it will split into serve and advise the com-
two independent compa- mittee that is performing ers spent less, businesses
nies by the end of the year. the search.
One will consist of Xerox’s Icahn said in a written invested less, and exports
core printer and copi- statement that he believes
er business, known as “doc- the independent busi- were down because of
ument technology,” which ness process outsourcing
had 40,000 workers and company will enhance global instability.
about $11 billion in sales shareholder value. Xerox
last year. The other will fo- also announced plans to The U.S. economy has
cus on “business process cut spending by at least
outsourcing,” or providing $600 million, on top of ear- been expanding for six
back-office functions like lier cost-cutting efforts.q
and a half years, but on
Wednesday the Federal
Reserve cautioned that
the U.S. economy is slow-
ing down. The Fed also ex-
pressed concerns about
global growth. Stocks tum-
bled after the Fed released
its assessment.
Crude oil prices kept rising.
Benchmark U.S. oil added
40 cents, or 1.2 percent, to
$33.62 a barrel in New York.
Brent crude, a bench-
mark for international oils,
gained 85 cents, or 2.5 per-
cent, to $34.74. q
