Stocks: Friday’s review

Nikkei 225 10,801.57 +148.93 +1.40%

Hang Seng 23,264.07 -90.24 -0.39%

S&P/ASX 200 4,709.49 -13.47 -0.29%

Shanghai Composite 2,243 -40.66 -1.78%

Agile Property Holdings Ltd. led Chinese developers lower, falling 3.1 percent in Hong Kong.

Sharp Corp. jumped 13 percent in Tokyo after the Mainichi newspaper reported the television maker will record an operating profit.

European stocks rose on a background of successful Italian auction result. After yesterday's successful auction of Spain, the Italian Government also today held a successful auction and the yield of local 3-year bonds reached a low in March to 1.85% (3.5 billion euros).

Positive background also created the news that Japan, which is one of the largest economies in the world, has adopted a program to stimulate the economy amount to $ 116.8 billion These funds will be invested in infrastructure, financial assistance to small businesses and encourage corporate investment, TV channel NHK. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes that extra-soft monetary policy and economic incentives will help the country get out of the recession of the late 2012.

In the U.K., a report showed manufacturing production unexpectedly dropped in November. Factory output decreased 0.3 percent from October. The average estimate compiled had called for it to increase 0.5 percent.

National benchmark indexes gained in 11 of the 18 western- European markets. France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX both advanced 0.1 percent, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent.

A gauge of European mining shares posted the biggest drop of the 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600, slumping 1.7 percent. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, declined 2.7 percent to 2,075 pence, its biggest slide since August. Rio Tinto Group lost 1.2 percent to 3,468 pence. Anglo American Plc , which named Mark Cutifani as its new chief executive officer on Jan. 8, dropped 1.5 percent to 2,042 pence.

SAP climbed 1.2 percent to 61.32 euros. The world’s largest maker of enterprise software unveiled a faster version of its Business Suite applications at an event in Palo Alto, California. SAP executives said they aim to replace software from Oracle, Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. that customers use to process and analyze information.

Cap Gemini SA added 2.3 percent to 34.29 euros as rival IT outsourcing company Infosys Ltd. jumped the most since its initial public offering in 1993 in Mumbai trading after raising its full-year sales forecast.

U.S. stocks held auctions of zero amid pressure from the financial companies led by Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and the unfavorable statistics on inflation in China.

According to published data, the consumer price index in China rose in December to a seven-month high, were worse than the average forecast of analysts, which led to rumors of a possible new measures to stimulate the economy.

Negativity in the market was also due to the disappointing statistics UK (stronger than expected fall in industrial production) and the U.S. (growth of the trade deficit to a 7-month high).

Two hours before the end of the session, 19:00 GMT, published data on the U.S. budget deficit, recorded the lowest value since the December 2007 (-0.3 billion), but the results will not reflect on the dynamics of trading.

Decrease in the indices limited positive comments second-largest U.S. oil company Chevron (CVX, +1,14%), in which he stated that the profit for the fourth quarter of 2012 will be significantly higher than in the previous quarter.

DOW index components finished trading mixed. Leader shares were Microsoft (MSFT, +1.40%). Maximum loss incurred stock Boeing (BA, -2.50%).

Sector of the S & P also were mixed with a slight modification. Maximum loss showed basic materials sector (-0.3%) and consumer goods (-0.3%). In the "green zone" dominated tech sector (+0.3%).

The world's largest consumer electronics retailer Best Buy increased its market capitalization by 16.4% due to the fact that its same-store sales in the U.S. for nine weeks ending January 5 remained virtually unchanged.

Paper U.S. lender Wells Fargo weakened by 0.9% despite the report of 24% growth of profits in the fourth quarter.

At the close:

S & P 500 1,472.05 -0.07 0.00%

NASDAQ 3,125.64 +3.88 +0.12%

Dow 13,488.43 +17.21 +0.13%