GMAC deal, oil price rise help push stocks higher
New York — Stocks rose Friday, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 index its first back-to-back gains in three weeks, after GMAC’s conversion to a bank spurred a rally in General Motors Corp. and oil’s increase sent Exxon Mobil Corp. higher.
GM jumped 13 percent, and Ford Motor Co. climbed 8.5 percent. The Federal Reserve’s approval of GMAC’s shift eased the threat that the lender, which provides financing to GM dealers, will default. Exxon advanced after oil surged 6.7 percent to $37.71 a barrel. Macy’s Inc. lost 2.5 percent on data from SpendingPulse that suggested holiday shopping sales dropped the most in four decades.
"The taxpayers are bailing out another financial company," Ralph Shive, the South Bend, Ind.-based manager of the $800 million Wasatch 1st Source Income Equity Fund, said of GMAC’s conversion. "In the long run, it may come back to haunt us, but in the short run, its being viewed as a positive."
The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to 872.80. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 47.07 points, or 0.6 percent, to 8,515.55. The Nasdaq composite index increased 5.34 points, or 0.35 percent, to 1530.24.
The S&P 500 fell 1 no teletrack payday loan.7 percent during the holiday-shortened week, extending its 2008 slide to 41 percent as house prices plunged, the government confirmed the economy contracted by the most since 2001 last quarter and the outlook for corporate earnings deteriorated.
GM advanced 13 percent to $3.66 for the biggest gain in the Dow and the third-largest in the S&P 500. Ford added 8.5 percent to $2.29.
Exxon advanced 1.9 percent to $77.19 and contributed most to the S&P 500’s gain. Crude oil futures rose the most in two weeks after the United Arab Emirates said it would reduce output to comply with OPEC’s supply curbs.
Macy’s fell 2.5 percent to $8.60. Nordstrom Inc. lost 1.2 percent to $11.91.
Amazon.com Inc. rose 0.7 percent to $51.78. The worlds largest Internet retailer said this was its best ever holiday season.
Jones Apparel Group Inc. surged 44 percent, the most since it began trading in 1991, to $5.62.
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