Wall Street mixed; UPS and Intel weigh, Morgan Stanley gains

11:52 am by Deborah Bacal

U.S. stocks were mixed by midday Friday, with the Dow holding in positive territory while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were in the red, dragged down by Intel and UPS.

Approaching noon in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 43 points at 16,460, while the Nasdaq fell 7 points to 4,212 and the S&P 500 lost 2 points to 1,844.

Friday's economic calendar was the busiest of the week, starting with December housing starts, which came in at 0.999 million units on an annualized basis, topping consensus estimates, but slowing from an upward revised 1.107 million units in November. Still, the year was the best since 2007.

Shortly following this, the Federal Reserve issued its December industrial production and capacity utilization figures, with the former rising 0.3%, in line with forecasts, while capacity utilization edged up to 79.2% from 79.1%.

This was followed by the University of Michigan's preliminary January consumer sentiment index, which surprisingly fell in January to a reading of 80.4 from 82.5 in December, below estimates.

With U.S. stocks finishing a rollercoaster week, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were all on track for weekly gains.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate has approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill that keeps the government open for at least another nine months, voting 72-26. With the House having passed the measures earlier this week, it will now go to President Obama for his signature. Congress now has around six weeks to lift or suspend the $16.7 trillion debt limit.

In stock news, Morgan Stanley ( NYSE:MS) shares gained more than 3% despite fourth quarter profit sinking 70%, as results topped estimates. Strong performance in the firm's wealth management business was offset by weak fixed income trading results, legal costs and higher expenses.

General Electric ( NYSE:GE) shares fell 2.5% after reporting higher earnings and revenue on strong orders and a record backlog during the fourth quarter as margins at its manufacturing units lagged behind guidance. Earnings met analyst estimates, while revenue topped expectations.

Intel ( NASDAQ:INTC) shares were down more than 3% Friday, a day after the chipmaker reported fourth quarter profit of 51 cents per share, a penny below estimates. Investors were also considered about the company's guidance.

In other corporate news, Apple ( NASDAQ:AAPL) started selling iPhones through China Mobile today, accessing the world's largest mobile network. Though there was some skepticism surrounding the deal, with shares down 1%.

Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) fell 0.6% after it warned that it expects its fourth quarter profit to be 'significantly lower' than recent levels of profitability, estimating that adjusted earnings on a current cost of supplies basis will plummet to $2.9 billion from $7.3 billion a year earlier. Consenus estimates are for $4 billion. Shell cited oil and gas prices, 'weak industry conditions in downstream oil products, higher exploration expenses, and lower upstream volumes' as reasons for the drop in earnings.

Yahoo ( NASDAQ:YHOO) shares edged down on reports that the company's editor-in-chief quit yesterday, a day after CEO Marissa Mayer fired her COO.

Twitter ( NYSE:TWTR) climbed more than 5% Friday after analysts at Stifel assigned a buy rating to the company in an initiating report, with a price target of $75.

UPS ( NYSE:UPS) declined 1.7% Friday after saying it sees fourth quarter earnings per share of $1.25 versus the estimate of $1.43.

In global markets, Asian stocks finished mostly lower, led by losses in China. European markets finished higher today, with Germany leading the region, as U.K. retail sales rose at the fastest pace in nine years in December, climbing 5.3% on year, blowing past consensus estimates.

In commodities, gold futures rose $14 to $1,254 an ounce after the consumer sentiment data helped the metal's appeal, while February crude rose 34 cents to $94.3 a barrel.

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