U.S. stocks finished mixed Friday, as investors weighed a better-than-expected profit from General Electric (GE) against a quarterly loss form Bank of America. In U.S. company news, GE said its fourth-quarter earnings rose 31 percent to $3.9 billion, driven by strong performance by its finance division and growth in equipment orders. Bank of America reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.2 billion, while SunTrust said it earned $84 million in the bank's fiscal third quarter-that compares with a loss of $377 million in the third quarter of 2009. In other corporate news, Oilfield services company Schlumberger said Friday that it earned a net income of $1.16 billion in the fourth quarter, up 42 percent from last year. Shares of the company fell 2.6 percent. The U.S. dollar fell against the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for March delivery fell 48 cents to $89.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $5.50 to $1,341 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.04, or 0.4 percent, to 11,871.84. GE led gainers on the Dow after the company reported a fourth-quarter profit that exceeded Wall Street forecasts, sending its stocks up 7 percent. Energy stocks Exxon and Chevron were also strong after an industry group suggested oil prices will continue to rise in 2011. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.09, or 0.24 percent, to 1,283.35. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 14.75, or 0.6 percent, to 2,689.54.
