Pleasing profits send stocks surging; Dow nears 13,000

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks bounded higher Friday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average to a record close approaching 13,000 as investors celebrated a week of surprisingly strong earnings reports. The major indexes all had their third straight winning week, their longest such streak since October.

Investors who had tempered their expectations for first-quarter earnings on Monday were energized by the initial wave of upbeat results. So far into the earnings season, 16 of the 30 Dow components have posted financial results for the first three months of the year — with 10 surpassing analyst forecasts.

Before the market opened Friday, Dow component companies Honeywell International (HON), Pfizer (PFE), Caterpillar (CAT) and McDonald's (MCD) met or beat analyst forecasts.

Better-than-expected results allowed stocks to extend their best April rally in four years, and one that pushed the Nasdaq composite index and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to six-year highs.

"It's not a matter of 13,000 for the Dow, we could be looking at 14,000 by the end of the year," said Robert Froehlich, chief investment strategist for investment firm DWS Scudder. "There's too much money out there chasing too few companies. This story isn't ending anytime soon."