Stocks are higher for 2nd week; GE soars

U.S. stocks advanced Friday, capping off a second straight weekly advance for the market. Investors were encouraged by the latest corporate deal news, that General Electric would be selling its long-struggling lending business.

Investors are turning their focus to next week, when corporate earnings ramp up. So far the outlook isn’t encouraging. With economic sluggishness in the U.S. and Europe, as wells the rapid appreciation of the dollar, analysts expect firstquarter results to be down 4.6%.

“Earnings are not going to be down because the U.S. economy is struggling,” said James Liu, global market strategist at JP Morgan Funds. “It’s going to be because of what has happened in energy and the dollar.”

Next week the nation’s biggest banks will report their results, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. Thirty-five of the members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index will report their results, as well as seven members of the Dow Jones industrial average

On Friday the Dow rose 98.92 points, or 0.6%, to 18,057.65. The S&P 500 rose 10.88 points, or 0.5%, to 2,102.06 and the Nasdaq composite rose 21.41 points, or 0.4%, to 4,995.98.

General Electric soared after the company said it would sell most of its lending arm, known as GE Capital, and shift its focus back to its industrial business.

GE’s stock jumped $2.78, or 11%, to $28.51, making it the biggest gainer in the Dow and the S&P 500.

It was a solid week for the market overall. The Dow and S&P 500 each rose 1.7%, while the Nasdaq rose 2.2%. The U.S. stock market has not had two straight weeks of gains since mid-February.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.95%. The dollar edged down to 120.20 yen from 120.57 yen while the euro fell to $1.0597 from $1.0662.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 85 cents to close at $51.64 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.30 to $57.87 in London.