4:30PM Earnings, Oil and gold dominate trading in stocks.

-Dow up 4.56%, Nasdaq down 19.69 and S&P down 0.18 points.
-Crude oil up $1.48 per barrel to $75.17 and gasoline closed up 3 cents to $2.20.
-Gold up $12.40 to $635.50 per ounce and silver up 44 cents to $12.96.
-Copper reached a new high to $3.14 up 18 cents.
-Yield on ten year bond rose to 5.010% and 30-year bonds to 5.095%.

Market averages rose early in the morning trading hours but lost momentum as tech stock declined and oil rose above $75 a barrel. Gold, silver rose but copper closed at a record high. Market averages meandered for the rest of the day. In New York and Nasdaq trading volume crossed 2.3 million shares. On New York Stock Exchange 290 stocks reached new highs and 88 stocks reached new lows. On Nasdaq 222 stocks reached new highs and 34 stocks reached new lows.

Earnings dominated trading sentiment for the rest of the day. Google rose as much as 8% before settling at 5.3% on 60% earnings growth and 79% revenue growth in the first quarter of this year. 3M reported earnings per share of $1.17 beating the estimate of $1.13. The stocks rose 3% at close. General Motors (GM) rose 3.8% after rising 10% on Thursday and Ford Motor lost 8% on weak earnings. Dell and Hewlett Packard lost after Citigroup lowered its rating to “Sell” on Dell. Dell lost 4.4% and Hewlett Packard lost 3% at close.

Getty Images, SanDisk and Satyam dropped on earnings news. Getty Images (GYI) dropped 13% on earnings miss of a penny and lowered guidance for the rest of the year. The company also mentioned during the conference call that market environment is too “promotional” and gross margin will suffer for the rest of the year.

SanDisk (SNDK) closed 8% lower on earnings worries and lower than expected gross margin. The company also warned that the average selling price for its removable memory products will keep declining at 20% or more every quarter for the rest of the year. During the conference call the company also reiterated that in the second half of the year manufacturing capacity in the industry is likely to double for NAND type of flash memory.

Satyam Computer (SAY) lost 12% at close on lowered revenue and net margin guidance. The company reported earnings of 39 cents per ADS on revenue growth of 34% for the Q4. The company guidance of 24% to 26% in revenue growth and earnings growth of 20% to 22% spooked investors.

3:30PM Emerging markets remain a favorite destination of international investors.
Emerging markets closed mostly lower across the world but Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Philippines and Singapore gained during the day advancing close to 1% each. Emerging markets witnessed steady stream of fund flows from the domestic and international investors. Liquidity driven rally propelled many of these markets around the world to record levels. Indonesia, India, Russia and Mexico are trading at record levels.

India registered 7% gain for the week and was close to unchanged at close on Friday. Market dropped as much as 160 points at mid-day and recovered most of the losses on strong buying from domestic mutual funds. Metal stocks such as Tata Steel, Hindalco and Sterlite registered sterling gains in the week. Daily turnover in the market has steadily grown to $1.3 billion from $700 million in the beginning of the year. The Sensex Index in India is up more than 27% for the year.

Indonesia has scaled more than 25% gain for the year so far and has become one of the hottest destinations for the international investors. Funds have been pouring money as bond yields are one of the highest in the world. The index lost a fraction to close at 1,459. Bank Permata, Berlian Laju Tanker and AStra Agro Lestari rose more than 0.5% at close.

Russia closed lower as the main index RTS closed at 1,617 down 0.07% with daily turnover of $714 million. Market dropped more than 1.4% in the morning trading and made a recovery near close but oil and metals stocks rose. NorNickel and Sibneft closed up 1.5%. Russian Index is up 36% for the year so far.

Mexico and Argentina led advancers in Latin American region. Mexico closed up 0.8% and IPC index closed up at 21,140. The index has been recording new highs for the last three weeks as oil and copper prices have moved upwards in the international markets. The Bank of Mexico cut the overnight interest rate to 7% from 7.25% and lowered the rate for the ninth time in nine months. The Bank also signaled that more cuts are not likely in the near future. American Movil (AMX) and Femsa (FMX) rose a fraction but Cemex (CX) fell a fraction on earnings news. Grupo Mexico added 5% at close. Mexican index IPC has gained 400% in the last five years, 100% in last two years and 12% since the beginning of the year.

Argentina’s Merval Index gained 1.4% to close at 1,918 and close up 24% for the year and has averaged $29 million daily turnover for the year. Tenaris, the largest energy tube manufacturing company, closed up 4% to close at peso 69.40 and closed up $14 in New York to $230.80.

Brazil index Bovespa lost 0.4% to close at 39,774. Mining and oil stocks continued their ascent. The mining giant CVRD (RIO) rose 4% in New York trading to close at $51.50 and Petrobras in New York closed higher $2.65 to close $99.60.

12:30AM European stocks advanced.
European markets extended early gains to close in the positive, boosted by strong U.S. markets start on the back of upbeat news from Google and 3M. All sectors advanced, except for the tech sector, dragged by disappointing quarterly results from Sweden’s Ericsson and Britain’s WPP. The German DAX 30 gained 0.5%, the French CAC 40 rose 0.9%, while London’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.8%.

11:30AM The Dow and S&P advanced. The Nasdaq dropped.
The U.S. stock markets turned mixed in late morning trading after posting strength in early hours. The Nasdaq failed to sustain gains and moved into the negative territory, while the Dow and S&P remained above the flat line. U.S. blue-chip stocks rose on Friday to a fresh six-year high on stronger-than-expected earnings by Google Inc. (GOOG), but chipmaker Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) and computer company Dell Inc. ((DELL) pulled the Nasdaq Composite Index lower. Broadcom fell 4% on analyst concerns about the outlook for the chip maker's margins and profits. Del fell 3.2% on brokerage downgrade, saying the company is losing its price advantage.

Gold stocks posted the most notable advance compared to other stocks which showed only modest gains. The sector showed a 3.2%, rebounding from 6.7% decline in the previous session on rising price of the precious metal. Gold for June delivery was last traded at $628 an ounce. Other metal prices also gained some ground after coming under pressure in the previous session. Bargain hunting helped the energy sector move to the upside, with the oil and oil service sectors both currently up about 1%. Meanwhile significant weakness was seen among disk drive stocks, with the sector currently showing a 3.9% decline. SanDisk (SNDK) and Hutchinson Technology (HTCH) dragged the sector down on lower quarterly earnings. The loss shown by the Nasdaq was also contributed by other tech stocks. Some semiconductor and networking stocks posted notable declines, with weakness also visible among biotechnology stocks.

10:30AM Sensex closed above 12,000 and up 7% for the week.
Sensex closed at 12,030 down 9 points and gained 7% for the week. Volatile trading, rising metals prices and profits of software export companies and mutual funds investments all contributed to the positive sentiment towards the market. Market sentiment also improved as rating agencies raises the debt rating for India and Reserve Bank left the short-term interest rate unchanged.

After rising more than 9% in yesterady’s trading Reliance Industries dropped Rs 20 to close at Rs. 974 on trading volume of 3.3 million shares. Hindustan Lever, ITC and NTPC were other volume leaders with more than one million shares changing hands. Reliance Communication Ventures, Hindalco and Satyam Computers traded more than four million shares. Satyam closed lower at Rs. 808 on earnings guidance of 18% to 20% for the year disappointing the market. Mahanagr telecom was the most actively traded stock on the exchage with trading volume of 6.37 million shares and closed at Rs. 210. Tata Steel closed Rs. 654 up Rs. 8 after rising 6% on Thursday and Tata Motors closed at Rs. 977 after rising 3% in previous session. Tata Motors had faced volatile trading in the last ten days of trading on rising price of petrol and crude oil.
9:45AM Stocks opened in the positive.
The major U.S. equity indices advanced at the start of trading on Friday. The early strength resulted from positive sentiment generated by strong earnings from Google (GOOG) and 3M Co. which overshadowed concerns about another record for oil prices. A rebound by gold stocks also contributed to the upward trend. Gold stocks recovered after sharp declines yesterday after the price of the precious metal regained some ground. Energy stocks also benefited from bargain hunting, despite weakness in oil price. Crude for June delivery was down $0.55 at $73.14 a barrel. Among stocks, SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) dropped 6% after reporting Q1 profit fell almost 47% to 17 cents a share, on $623 million in revenue, blaming acquisition of Matrix Semiconductor and compensation expenses. Getty Images (GYI) slipped 11% after Piper Jeffray and Bear Stearns downgraded the company. The provider of stock images reported Q1 earnings rose 15% to 61 cents a share on 13% revenue growth. Satyam Computer Services (SAY) reported 36% profit jump in Q4, but the stock fell 9% on disappointing Q1 sales growth target of around 4%. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 37.94, or 0.33%. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 3.76, or 0.29%, and the Nasdaq composite index slipped 1.47, or 0.06%. Bonds rebounded slightly, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 5.01% from 5.04% late Thursday.

9:00 AM Stock futures indicated a positive opening on Google.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening, following a mixed performance on Thursday. The Dow finished at a six-year high, lifted by General Motors which reported a quarterly loss but much narrower than the loss a year ago. The Nasdaq finished in the red on weakness among tech stocks with eBay and Juniper networks falling notably down on disappointing guidance. On Friday, investors are expected to focus their attention largely on earnings reports as no economic news is due out today. S&P 500 futures were up 2.60 points, above fair value. Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 16 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 4.50 points.