Stocks Opened Lower after Earnings

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday, in the wake of earnings from Morgan Stanley and General Electric, and ahead of
data on the housing market and consumer sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 8.73 points, or
0.05%, at 16,408.28. The S&P 500 was down 5.16 points, or 0.28%, to 1,840.73. The Nasdaq Composite was off 12.39
points, or 0.29%, to 4,206.30.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co (GE) posted a slightly better-than-expected rise in revenue on Friday. Its
quarterly net earnings rose to $4.2 billion, or 41 cents per share, from $4.01 billion, or 38 cents a share, a
year earlier.

Morgan Stanley profit falls but tops Street target. Morgan Stanley reported a profit of $181 million, compared
with a year-earlier profit of $594 million. The quarter included a pretax legal expense of $1.2 billion, or 40
cents a share. Stripping out the legal expense and other items, per-share earnings were 50 cents and revenue rose
9.7% to $8.2 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently expected per-share earnings of 45 cents, on
revenue of $8.01 billion, both excluding accounting impacts.

U.S. housing starts fell less than expected in December, pausing after recent strong gains that had propelled home
building activity to multi-year highs. The Commerce Department said on Friday groundbreaking dropped 9.8 percent
to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000-unit pace.

United Parcel Service Inc estimated quarterly profit below analysts’ expectations, partly due to a shorter U.S.
holiday season.It expects to report a profit of $1.25 per share for the fourth quarter.