Fox Rothschild Continues Steady Climb Up Am Law 200

Only two of the six Pennsylvania firms on the Am Law 200 were able to improve their position on the annual ranking of firms based on gross revenue, despite all of the firms seeing rises in that metric.

Market Continues to Climb, Defying Fears of a Sell-Off

The stock market rose on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing above 15,000 for a second day after breaching that level for the first time on Tuesday.

Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, predicted more gains in the short term, but he also said a pullback was likely at some point because the rise in the market was beginning to overstate the improvement in the economy.

Stocks have defied predictions that a sell-off would follow the spring surge as signs emerged that growth could be set for a slowdown. The Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index have gained every month of the year and are trading at nominal record highs.

Materials and information technology companies gained the most of the 10 industry groups in the S.& P. 500 index. Materials rose 0.9 percent, and I.T. rose 0.8 percent. The two industry groups have surged in the last month after lagging the index for the first three months of the year.

That suggests that investors are moving from the so-called defensive stocks — which offer good dividends and can grow regardless of the state of the economy — into industries that will benefit more if the economy accelerates.

The Dow industrials rose 48.92 points, or 0.3 percent, at 15,105.12. The Dow is 15.3 percent higher for the year. The S.& P. 500 index rose 6.73 points, or 0.4 percent, at 1,632.69, extending its advance for 2013 to 14.5 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index advanced 16.64 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,413.27, putting its gain so far this year at 13 percent.

Among the stocks on the move on Wednesday, AOL plunged $3.68, or 8.9 percent, to $37.74 after the company reported earnings that fell short of the forecasts of Wall Street analysts who follow the stock. Subscription revenue fell 9 percent.

Wendy’s fell 34 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $5.78 after it reported a 2 percent rise in revenue to $603.7 million, short of the $615 million forecast of analysts.

Whole Foods climbed $9.39, or 10.1 percent, to $102.19 after the natural foods store chain said its fiscal second-quarter net income rose 20 percent. The company also raised its profit forecast for the full year.

Electronic Arts, which makes the Madden football games and SimCity, jumped $3.15, or 17.1 percent, to $21.56 after it projected profits for the current fiscal year that were higher than analysts were expecting.

In the bond market, interest rates eased. The price of the 10-year Treasury note rose 4/32 to 102 3/32, while its yield slipped to 1.77 percent, from 1.78 percent late Tuesday.

In Middle of Climb, Markets Take a Breather

Strong company earnings lifted stocks on Wall Street on Friday, and investors saw a chance to add to their holdings after declines earlier in the week.

Nike reported a surge in quarterly profit, sending its stock price up 11 percent. Tiffany topped earnings predictions, helped by demand from customers in Asia.

Investors were also drawn by a pause in the market’s big run-up. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index logged its second weekly decline of the year, despite Friday’s gains.

The damper stemmed partly from the struggles of Cyprus to devise a plan to avoid financial collapse. Stocks were also weighed down by weak sales from Oracle.

FedEx ended the week 10 percent lower after it reported a decline in quarterly profit and cut its annual earnings forecast on Wednesday. The company can be a gauge of the economy because many shoppers and businesses use its shipping services.

A resilient global economy has encouraged investors to pick up stocks on any dips, said Ron Florance, managing director of investment strategy at Wells Fargo’s Private Bank.

“We still have an astonishing amount of money sitting on the sidelines,” Mr. Florance said.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.54 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,512.03. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 11.09 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,556.89. The Nasdaq composite gained 22.40 points, or 0.7 percent, to 3,245.

Nike shares hit a nominal high, rising $5.93, to $59.53, after the company reported a 55 percent increase in quarterly net income. Tiffany rose $1.32, or 1.9 percent, to $69.23 after posting strong fourth-quarter earnings.

The Dow shed a fraction of a percentage point this week. The S.& P. 500 was 7 points, or 0.3 percent, lower than it was at the start of trading on Monday.

The S.& P. index last logged a weekly decline Feb. 22, falling 0.3 percent after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting. The minutes revealed disagreement over how long to keep buying bonds in an effort to support the economy.

Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, said the market run-up may slow as the Fed faces increasing pressure to end its stimulus program.

Interest rates were steady. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note fell 4/32, to 100 21/32, and the yield rose to 1.92 percent from 1.91 percent late Thursday.

Among other stocks making big moves on Friday were the chip maker Micron Technology, which rose 97 cents, or 10.7 percent, to $10.04 despite reporting a loss in its fiscal second-quarter on Thursday. The company said that revenue grew 3 percent, to $2.08 billion, better than analysts had expected.

Anacor Pharmaceuticals rose $1.24, or 25.6 percent, to $6.08 on Friday after reporting strong data from a midstage study of a potential chronic rash treatment.

Marin Software rose $2.26, or 16.1 percent, to $16.26 in its market debut. The company raised $105 million in its initial public offering of stock.

AK Steel Holding fell 16 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $3.31, after projecting a larger-than-expected first-quarter loss because a previously expected seasonal increase in the demand for steel did not materialize.

Euro Watch: Unemployment Continues to Climb in Euro Zone

The euro zone jobless rate rose to 11.8 percent in November from 11.7 percent in October, according to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union. Eurostat estimated that 18.8 million people in the euro zone were unemployed in November, two million more than a year earlier.

Germany has provided momentum to the European economy over the past three years, as strong exports protected the country from the crisis.

But on Tuesday, the Federal Statistics Office in Berlin said that German exports declined 3.4 percent while imports slid 3.7 percent in November from a month earlier. The weakness narrowed Germany’s trade surplus to €14.6 billion, or $19 billion.

German factory orders also fell in November amid weak demand from outside the euro area, the Economy Ministry said Tuesday. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, slid 1.8 percent from October, when they jumped 3.8 percent.

“The November numbers are not a one-off but an extension of the current trend of weakening exports,” Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING, wrote in a research note Tuesday. He pointed out that German exports had fallen about 4 percent since May.

“Today’s data confirmed our view that exports should have turned from driver of growth into drag on growth,” he wrote.

A separate report from Eurostat showed that retail sales fell 2.6 percent in November from a year earlier, though they gained 0.1 percent from October.

The gloomy reports come as the Governing Council of the European Central Bank prepares to hold a policy meeting Thursday, followed by an interest-rate announcement. Despite a sharp decline in bank lending reported last week, which had some analysts suggesting that the central bank might try new steps to stimulate the economy, economists surveyed by Reuters said they expected the E.C.B. to leave policy unchanged in January as it waited for a clearer picture of economic conditions.

Like their counterparts in the United States, Japan and Britain, the monetary authorities in the euro zone have already opened the spigots, allowing banks to borrow essentially as much as they want at the benchmark rate. Mario Draghi, president of the E.C.B., has pledged to do whatever is necessary to ensure the stability of the euro, including, if needed, buying the sovereign bonds of Spain and Italy to hold their borrowing costs to sustainable levels.

The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said Monday in Lisbon that “the existential threat against the euro has essentially been overcome. ”

“In 2013 the question won’t be if the euro will, or will not, implode,” he said.

The central bank’s actions have succeeded in calming markets and driving down government bond yields for embattled countries. The European Commission reported Tuesday that an index of economic sentiment in the euro zone had improved by 1.3 points in December, to 87. “Economic sentiment in the euro area improved among consumers and across all sectors, except retail trade,” the commission reported.

Gilles Moëc, an economist at Deutsche Bank in London, said the data Tuesday were consistent with expectations that the euro zone economy would remain in recession through the winter, with the unemployment rate possibly rising to as high as 12.4 percent.

“We’re still far below the level of growth that would stabilize the labor market,” he said.

But he added that the commission’s report on economic sentiments, as well as recent surveys of purchasing managers, suggested that the downturn in the manufacturing sector had “bottomed out,” making possible a return to growth later in the year.

“External demand seems to be holding up better than we had thought,” Mr. Moëc said. “Now we are to a large extent dependent on what happens in the United States,” he added, referring to the negotiations on spending.

Europe also got a vote of confidence from Tokyo on Tuesday, as Finance Minister Taro Aso said Japan would buy bonds of the European Stability Mechanism, the euro zone bailout fund, as well as sovereign debt in the currency zone.

“The financial stability of Europe will help the stability of foreign exchange rates, including the yen,” Mr. Aso was quoted by the Nikkei newspaper as saying.

Attacking joblessness may require governments to ease back on austerity measures that many economists, including some at the International Monetary Fund, say might have gone too far. In France, President François Hollande has vowed to turn around the flagging labor market, where, according to Eurostat, unemployment was 10.5 percent in November.

Eurostat said Spain, which is suffering from the collapse of a real estate bubble and the impact of a raft of tough austerity measures, had the highest unemployment rate in the bloc, at 26.6 percent. Greece, where the sovereign debt crisis began, was next at 26 percent, according to data released in September. The lowest rates were in Austria, at 4.5 percent; Luxembourg, at 5.1 percent; and Germany, at 5.4 percent.

Worryingly, youth unemployment in the euro zone continued to grow, with 5.8 million people under age 25 classified as jobless in November, up 420,000 from a year earlier.

The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who was in Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, singled out youth unemployment as one of the biggest challenges Greece faces in reviving its economy. But he said at a news conference before meeting the chancellor that, over all, he was positive.

“I see the glass half-full,” Mr. Samaras said before taking part in an economic conference in Berlin. “We’re delivering and Europe’s helping.”

It was the Greek prime minister’s second trip to Berlin since taking office. The mood appeared lighter than during his visit in August, which came on the heels of calls from within Ms. Merkel’s government for Greece to leave the common currency.

Greece is focusing its efforts on winning back the trust of Europeans, as well as the markets, Mr. Samaras said. But he emphasized that high unemployment, especially among young people, weighed heavily on Greeks.

“I would like to make it clear up front that our country is making enormous efforts and many are paying a high price, in order to get things back on track,” Mr. Samaras said.

Ms. Merkel said that Greece’s European partners must continue to support the country. She was perhaps wary of the fragility of Mr. Samaras’s three-party coalition government, which has been pushing through deeply unpopular reforms.

“We also must do everything to guarantee economic growth, security and jobs,” Ms. Merkel said.

David Jolly reported from Paris. James Kanter contributed reporting from Brussels and Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo.