Stocks closed narrowly mixed Wednesday, as investors continued to focus on quarterly profit reports and outlooks by major corporations.
Wall Street registered little reaction to President Bush’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night.
Financial-services stocks rose on strong quarterly results by J.P. Morgan Chase.
The dollar continued to lose ground against the euro.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 94.96 points, to 10,623.62, a 22-month high. 3M, Caterpillar and Eastman Kodak led the gainers among the 30 Dow industrials. SBC Communications, Intel and AT&T were the biggest Dow losers.
Schaumburg-based Motorola closed down 24 cents, to $16.81, despite a strong quarterly report issued late Tuesday. Analysts gave the report mixed reviews.
Intel announced it would double its quarterly cash dividend, to 4 cents a share, payable March 1 to shareholders of record Feb. 7.
Intel shares slipped 41 cents, to $32.20, in line with a general decline in semiconductor stocks.
Shares of online auction service eBay climbed past $67 in after-hours trading, up from $64.38 at the close of the regular Nasdaq session.
The company late Wednesday posted a more than 60 percent increase in fourth-quarter profits and boosted its forecast for 2004, estimating revenue for the year as high as $3 billion, up from $2.17 billion in 2003.
Earnings reports scheduled for Thursday include Microsoft, AT&T, Amgen, Pfizer and Southwest Airlines.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.85, to 1147.62. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 5.53, to 2142.45. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks edged down 0.50, to 597.48.
New York Stock Exchange trading volume reached 1.72 billion shares. Winners outnumbered losers by a 5-3 ratio among NYSE-listed stocks.
Nasdaq volume totaled 2.35 billion shares, as losers held a slight edge over winners.
Treasury securities advanced on optimism that the low-interest rate environment will persist. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the disappointing report in December job growth, issued Jan. 9, may have understated hiring activity.
Gold dropped in New York futures trading, after Germany said it may sell bullion from its gold reserve. Gold for February delivery slipped $1.70 an ounce, to $411.20.
Crude oil declined in New York futures trading, after OPEC officials indicated they probably won’t reduce oil output at a meeting in February. Oil for March delivery dropped 29 cents a barrel, to $34.58.
Dividend gains: When you ask Howard Silverblatt, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s, about the trend in corporate dividends, he mentions the proverbial tree that falls in the forest.
Dividend payments were up in 2003, thanks in part to last year’s cut in the tax rate on dividend income, but investors aren’t paying much attention.
Last year, 228 companies in the S&P 500 increased or initiated cash dividends, up from 176 companies taking positive dividend actions in 2002.
“Last year was a turnaround year,” Silverblatt said. “It was the first time we increased the number of [dividend payers] in over two decades.”
High-tech companies that paid a dividend for the first time last year included American Power Conversion, Analog Devices, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Tektronix.
Intel’s dividend boost, announced Wednesday, adds credibility to the place of dividends in leading-edge stocks.
Nonetheless, “there’s not a lot of money chasing dividend stocks,” said Richard Furmanski, an investment consultant at Concord Asset Management in Chicago, a unit of Madison Investment Advisors.
Indeed, Furmanski said a love affair with dividend payers probably represents the next leg of the market rally that began last March.
“We haven’t gotten to Phase 2 yet,” he said.
In the meantime, information technology companies, which are enjoying a rebound in business spending, have a long way to go to catch up with so-called old-economy companies in paying dividends.
Twenty-eight percent of IT companies in the S&P 500 pay dividends, compared with 74 percent of the S&P 500 companies overall.
