Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose moderately on Friday, extending gains from a strong start to the month amid mixed quarterly earnings from a host of industrial giants as well as robust consumer sentiment data.
Buoyed by a productive third quarter, shares in General Electric Company (N:GE) surged to its highest level since the peak of the Financial Crisis on Friday, as the company continues its major transition following the divestiture of its financial arm. While the multinational conglomerate provided a boost to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Composite index, the gains were limited by losses from Honeywell International Inc (N:HON) and WW Grainger Inc (N:GWW).
The Dow capped a solid week by gaining 75.96 or 0.44% to close on Friday at 17,217.71, while the NASDAQ Composite index added 16.59 or 0.34% to end the session at 4,886.69, its highest closing level in nearly a month.
The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, rose 9.22 or 0.46% to 2,033.08, as eight of its 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Consumer Goods, Health Care and Telecommunications industries led, each gaining at least 0.50% on the session. Stocks in the Basic Materials and Industrials sectors lagged.
During GE's third quarter, the company earned revenue of $31.68 billion on earnings of 0.25 per share, considerably above analysts' forecasts of $28.65 billion for the period. GE saw its profits spike by 9% to $2.51 billion, amid modest industrial revenue growth.
"The GE team had a good quarter and a slow growth in volatile environment," GE CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement. "Meanwhile, growth markets are facing some headwinds in resource pricing and currency. Nonetheless, we’re positioned to win some big fourth quarter deals in these markets in locomotives and power, aviation, and power conversion, which should support our growth objectives; and service provides a great buffer in times of uncertainty."
Honeywell shares, however, fell 1.49% to 97.03, after the New Jersey-based conglomerate topped earnings estimates for the quarter, but reported a decline in sales. Grainger, a Chicago-based industrial tool maker, also lost more than 6% to 207.65, after missing profit forecasts for the three-month period.
Shares in GE, the top performer on the Dow, gained 0.95 or 3.39% to close at 28.98. The worst performer was Caterpillar Inc (N:CAT), which fell 1.15 or 1.62% to 69.68. The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Mattel Inc (O:MAT), which rose 1.29 or 5.73% to 23.82, as investors covered shorts from a sell-off on Thursday in after-hours trading. One session earlier, the toy giant reported a 33% decline in profits from the third quarter, amid poor sales in its Barbie doll division.
The worst performer was Seagate Technology (O:STX), which lost 1.88 or 4.54% to 39.56, extending a 14% loss from the prior session. Shares in Seagate have fallen dramatically over the last two sessions, after the data storage manufacturer lowered its guidance due to pessimistic gross margin forecasts for the quarter.
Mattel (O:MAT) was also the top performer on the S&P 500, just ahead of GRMN which jumped 1.76 or 5.45% to close at 34.04. Garmin rallied from a poor performance on Thursday when the GPS navigation company downwardly revised its third quarter earnings' forecasts.
The worst performer was Quanta Services (N:PWR), which plummeted 7.45 or 28.42% to 18.76. Earlier on Friday, the company warned that its per-share earnings for the quarter could be more than 0.15 less than previous estimates.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 1,837-1,263 margin.