Stocks Climb, Focus on Earnings

U.S. stocks climbed in the early trading on Thursday, as investors grappled with a host of corporate earnings and muddled economic data. The Dow industrials lately climbed 33.74 points, or 0.22%, to 15,447.07. The S&P 500 was off 0.87 point, or 0.05%, to 1,745.51.The Nasdaq Composite added 0.81 points, or 0.02%, to 3,907.88.

Ford Motor Co (NYS:F) boosted its full-year global earnings and margin outlook on Thursday, helped by an
improved forecast in Europe and better-than-expected results in the third quarter. The No. 2 U.S. automaker
now expects its pretax profit to top last year’s $8 billion and to lose less money in Europe.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell less than expected last week as
California continued to process a backlog of applications caused by computer problems. Initial claims for
state unemployment benefits fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Labor Department said on
Thursday.

The U.S. trade deficit widened slightly in August as exports slipped, suggesting trade will probably not be
much of a boost to growth in the third quarter. The Commerce Department said on Thursday the trade gap
nudged up 0.4 percent to $38.8 billion.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is so convinced he was right to sell some of his Netflix Inc stake that he
made a big bet – possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars – with his son Brett, who disagreed with the
decision. Icahn, whose firm acquired Netflix shares for an average price of $58 against their current price
at $330, cut his 9.4 percent stake by more than half to 4.5 percent, booking profits of around $800 million,
he revealed on Tuesday.

The principal contractors responsible for the federal government’s trouble-plagued health insurance website
say the Obama administration shares responsibility for the snags that have crippled the system.