Tech earnings blunt stocks' hot streak

The Associated Press • July 19, 2008 NEW YORK — Wall Street closed out an impressive week with a mixed performance Friday as disappointing high-tech earnings punctured investors' enthusiasm over better-than-expected bank earnings reports. But the major indexes still ended the week with big gains, the result of rising optimism about the troubled financial sector. The market was clearly pleased when Citigroup Inc., while reporting a second-quarter loss Friday morning, beat analysts' forecasts. But investors who ecstatically sent the Dow Jones industrials soaring more than 480 points Wednesday and Thursday were brought back down to earth by results from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Google's results were lower than expected, the result of the weakening economy hurting ad revenue, while Microsoft... [read full story]