Stocks Opened Up ahead of Manufacturing Report

U.S. stocks were higher at the open on Friday ahead of a key manufacturing report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately advanced 71.54 points, or 0.46%, to 15,617.29.The S&P 500 rose 6.74 points, or 0.38%, to 1,763.28. The Nasdaq Composite gained 15.87 points, or 0.40%, to 3,935.58.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today reported earnings of $5.0 billion ($2.57 per share — diluted) for the third quarter 2013, compared with $5.3 billion ($2.69 per share — diluted) in the 2012 third quarter. Sales and other operating revenues in the third quarter 2013 were $57 billion, compared to $56 billion in the year-ago period.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , the biggest U.S. bank by assets, disclosed on Friday that the U.S. Department of
Justice and agencies from other jurisdictions are investigating hiring practices in Hong Kong that were
already being probed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Google has spent months and millions of dollars encrypting email, search queries and other information flowing among its data centers worldwide. Facebook’s chief executive said at a conference this fall that the government “blew it.” And though it has not been announced publicly, Twitter plans to set up new types of encryption to protect messages from snoops.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to create an internal “bad bank” to fence off its riskiest assets, part of a raft
of measures designed to heal its relationship with the British government and speed up its eventual
privatization.

AT&T Inc. (T) executives are exploring a takeover of the U.K. wireless-telecom giant as soon as next year. The companies haven’t entered formal negotiations, but AT&T is laying the groundwork internally and identifying which Vodafone assets to retain in a potential takeover, the report said.

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. carmaker preparing for an initial public offering, reported a smaller sales
gain than analysts estimated as the delayed introduction of the Jeep Cherokee crimped demand.

Gold futures dropped to their lowest point in almost two weeks Friday. Gold for December delivery dropped $8.80, or 0.7%, to 1,314.90 an ounce.