DJI- NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks mostly rose on Friday, led by solid earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Microsoft, but declines in banks and technology shares pulled indexes from their day's highs.
The Nasdaq Composite fell as SanDisk Corp led a drop in semiconductor shares with an 11.3 percent slide after its second revenue warning in as many quarters.
Apple Inc's more than 2.4 percent fall also weighed, as shares continue to struggle ahead of earnings next week. Apple shares posted back-to-back weekly declines of more than 4 percent for the first time since late December 2008.
As earnings season moves into high gear, the first wave of corporate results has been substantially stronger than expected. About 81 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have beat expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The impressive rate of beats comes amid lowered expectations, but the earnings have helped stocks regain their footing after a recent pullback on less-than-inspiring U.S. economic figures and renewed worry about Europe's debt crisis.
Analysts said the weakness heading into Friday's close was in part because of caution ahead of an early indicator of China's industrial activity, expected late Sunday.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 65.16 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,029.26. The S&P 500 Index <.SPX> gained 1.61 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,378.53. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 7.11 points, or 0.24 percent, to 3,000.45.
For the week, the Dow gained 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.4 percent, down for a third week running.
NYMEX-NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose for the first time in three days on Friday, lifted by better-than-expected data on German business sentiment that helped ease worries about the euro zone debt crisis and improve the outlook for oil demand.
Front-month May crude futures expired and their successor, June , gained more than 1 percent, heading towards $104. Volumes were light.
* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for May delivery expired and settled at $103.05 a barrel, gaining 78 cents, or 0.76 percent. For the week, it edged up 22 cents, or 0.21 percent, after a loss of 48 cents, at $102.83, in the week to April 13.
* NYMEX June crude closed at $103.88, up $1.16, or 1.13 percent, trading between $102.86 and $104.68.
* German business sentiment unexpectedly rose for the sixth consecutive month in April, data from the Ifo think tank showed. Ifo's business climate index, based on a poll of 7,000 companies, inched up to 109.9 from March's 109.8 and marked the highest level since July 2011. [ID:nL6E8FK2L6]
* Iran is exporting 2.1 million barrels per day of crude oil, compared to an average of 2.3 million bpd in the last Iranian year ended March 19, Platts quoted Iranian oil officials as saying. [ID:nL6E8FK51W]
* European Union member governments could review in the next two months an embargo on Iranian oil imports due to take effect in July, a senior EU official said. [ID:nB5E8EK02J]
CBOT SOYBEAN- Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade soared more than 2 percent and set a 7-1/2-month high as worries that South America's soy harvest was shrinking sparked technical buying, traders said.
The market surged to its highest spot price since Aug. 31, 2011, in the closing seconds of trade. Nearby contracts led deferreds on ideas that crop losses in South America would steer near-term export demand to the United States. Talk of poor yields in the ongoing
Argentine soybean harvest raised concerns that USDA in its next monthly report would again lower its Argentine soy crop forecast from its current 45 million tonnes. The Argentine government on Thursday cut its soybean production estimate to 42.9 million tonnes, from 44 million previously. Rumors of fresh sales of U.S. soybeans to China added support. The late-day surge helped CBOT soybeans to finish the week about 1 percent higher, the market's fourth straight weekly rise. CBOT May options expired at the close on Friday.
FCPO- SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures reversed earlier losses to end higher on Friday on last minute buying, although traders remained wary over the weak global economy and slowing export data.
Buying surged in the last half hour of trading and sometraders said this was due to the weak performance this week that prompted investors to close out their short positions to book profits.
Despite closing higher on Friday, palm oil still recorded a slight 0.3 percent weekly loss as investors were held back by disappointing jobless U.S. data, while worries about the euro zone persisted despite a better-than-expected Spanish bond auction. [ID:nL2E8FJ25I]
"The buying came in the last half an hour (of trading), we saw an obvious trend that market will close higher, and all of us were a bit apprehensive of selling," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.
Tight soybean supply in drought-hit South America remained a bullish factor for palm oil. On Thursday, Argentina's government cut its soy production estimates to more than 10 percent below last year's harvest levels. [ID:nL2E8FJBMW]
On the demand side, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said exports for April 1-20 fell 5.6 percent to 844,453 tonnes, in which exports for by-products such as refined palm stearin and palm fatty acid distillate were observably lower than a month ago. [PALM/ITS]
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported a similar 5.3 percent fall in exports for the same period from a month ago. [PALM/SGS]
REGIONAL EQUITY- April 20 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian markets fell on Friday after disappointing U.S. data stirred doubts about the strength of its economic recovery, and on renewed concerns over the euro zone debt crisis.
Singapore <.FTSTI> ended 0.5 percent lower, falling from a two-week high in thin trade, while Malaysia <.KLSE> fell 0.3 percent to a three-week low despite $14.19 million of inflows.
The Philippines <.PSI> and Vietnam fell 0.3 percent each.
Bucking the trend, Thailand <.SETI> gained 0.8 percent to its highest since April 4, led by information and technology shares.
Indonesia <.JKSE> rose 0.4 percent to its highest since April 3, with $16.7 million of inflows. Trade was heavy, with top lender Bank Mandiri gaining 1.4 percent.
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