NEW YORK Stocks finished a strong week mostly flat Friday as investors tried to reconcile a weaker-than-expected estimate of first-quarter economic growth with fresh evidence that corporate profits remain robust.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.44, or 0.12 percent, to 13,120.94. The Dow set a trading high of 13,148.00 Friday after surpassing 13,000 for the first time Wednesday. The Dow's gain Friday marked the 37th record close for the index since October. For the week, the Dow rose 1.2 percent.
Broader indexes finished mixed Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.18, or 0.01 percent, to 1,494.07, while the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index rose 2.75, or 0.11 percent, to 2,557.21.
The S&P 500 is about 2 percent below its high of 1,527.46, reached in March 2000. Wall Street has been eyeing the index, waiting for it to move back above 1,500; the S&P 500 hasn't closed above that level since September 2000.
Airline stocks fell after JPMorgan Chase lowered its rating on several carriers, seeing little cause for the stocks to move higher. UAL Corp. fell $2.94, or 8 percent, to $34.01. AMR Corp. fell $1.34, or 4.8 percent, to $26.35, Continental Airlines Inc. dropped $2.53, or 6.5 percent, to $36.25.
Among Dow stocks, Microsoft jumped $1.02, or 3.5 percent, to $30.12, after reporting a 65 percent surge in its fiscal third-quarter earnings amid strong sales of its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 software suite.
General Electric Co. was the second-best performer in the Dow Friday behind Microsoft, rising $1, or 2.8 percent, to $36.84 after a Citigroup Inc. analyst said the conglomerate could boost its shares by selling its entertainment, real estate and financial businesses to boost its share price.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reported a loss for the first quarter compared with a profit a year earlier but pleased Wall Street with word it would dig deeper to trim costs and that a recovery from a strike was proving less onerous than expected. Goodyear rose $1.91, or 5.9 percent, to $34.41.
Citigroup said it successfully taken over Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial Corp. for $7.7 billion. The acquisition was the largest ever by a foreign company in Japan. Citigroup fell, slipping 19 cents to $53.37.
The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 87.1 in April from a preliminary reading of 85.3 but fell from 88.4 in March.
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