US stocks rose on Friday on optimism that a deal to bail out Cyprus would be reached, but ended lower for the week for just the second time this year. Nike shares jumped 11.1 percent to $59.53 and hit a record intraday high at $60.23, a day after the athletic shoe maker reported stronger-than-expected results.
---- S&P 500 marks second negative week of the year
---- PepsiCo, Mondelez jump on report of activist investor stake
---- Nike shares hit record after results
The news lifted consumer discretionary stocks, with the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector index ending up 1.2 percent, leading the S&P 500 higher. Cyprus was close to a deal to raise billions of euros and unlock a bailout from the European Union that could avert a financial meltdown and its exit from the euro, its ruling party said.
The lingering concern among investors is that were Cyprus to leave the euro zone, it would open the door for other larger countries to follow suit and debilitate the bloc. "If, in fact, the talk of departures from the euro were to get front and centre, that could scare investors at the macro level, but it's unlikely the Cyprus thing turns into that," said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management US in Chicago.
The S&P 500 ended the week down 0.2 percent, which was just its second weekly decline of the year, as investors were alarmed that Europe's debt crisis would again roil markets over Cyprus' financial troubles.
Stocks have been gaining on news of a strengthening recovery and the view the Federal Reserve will continue to support the economy. The S&P 500 is up 9.2 percent for the year. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.54 points, or 0.63 percent, to end at 14,512.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11.09 points, or 0.72 percent, to finish at 1,556.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 22.40 points, or 0.70 percent, to close at 3,245.00.
For the week, the Dow dipped just 0.01 percent, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.1 percent. Finance ministers from the 17-nation euro zone are due to hold talks Sunday about a revised bailout of Cyprus, two euro- zone sources told Reuters. "Whether you're talking about the euro zone or Washington, D.C., the market has been conditioned to these crises being resolved in the 11th hour or kicked down the road," said
Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey. The day's other big gainers included shares of Tiffany & Co , which reported a slightly higher profit for the quarter that included the holiday season, and said the pace of its world-wide sales growth would pick up this year. Tiffany's stock rose 1.9 percent to $69.23.
Shares of food makers Mondelez International and PepsiCo rose on Friday after a UK newspaper reported that activist shareholder Nelson Peltz has been building stakes in both companies. Mondelez rose 4.1 percent to $29.73. PepsiCo gained 3.3 percent to $78.64.
Other upbeat corporate news came from Micron Technology. It posted a quarterly net loss on Thursday, but the chipmaker said the outlook for memory chip prices is improving. The stock gained 10.7 percent to end at $10.04 after hitting an intraday high of $10.27 - its highest in almost two years.
Volume was roughly 5.4 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion. Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by about 19 to 11 and on the Nasdaq, by about 3 to 2.
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