Wall Street gains as investors weigh Citi, Google results

Investors have been worried that recent data indicate a slowing economy, which would cut into profit growth at some of the nation's biggest companies. But, results so far have shown that earnings, for the most part, are meeting or beating expectations, and the major indexes all posted gains of more than 4 percent for the week.

Citigroup, the nation's biggest bank, encouraged investors after posting results that didn't contain any big surprises. The New York-based bank reported a loss of $5.1 billion during the first quarter because of poor bets on mortgages and leveraged loans. The loss was half the $10 billion recorded for the preceding quarter.

Google helped boost investor sentiment, as well as the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, by reporting first-quarter earnings and revenue growth that handily topped analysts' predictions. There had been some speculation on Wall Street that the search engine would turn in sluggish results because of slower online advertising revenue.

"This is the first week of earnings reports, and the marquee companies in general have been able to report good earnings, and the banks have been able to raise capital, and the market is responding to that," said Subodh Kumar, global investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Assoc. in Toronto.

According to preliminary results, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 228.87, or 1.81 percent, to 12,849.36.

Broader stock indicators also showed sizable advances. The Standard & Poor's 500 index increased 24.77, or 1.81 percent, to 1,390.33, and the Nasdaq rose 61.14, or 2.61 percent, to 2,402.97.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.48 billion shares.

The gains come at the end of a big week for stocks. After a quiet start to the week, the major indexes surged more than 2 percent Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co., Intel Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. reported better-than-expected profits. Stocks then finished mixed Thursday, largely holding their gains.

For the week, the Dow rose 4.25 percent, the S&P 500 gained 4.31 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 4.92 percent.