The New York equities markets had to recover from losses incurred by disappointing quarterly results from General Motors, Intel, and Yahoo.

The Dow, the S&P and Nasdaq all managed to finish the day in positive territory, though.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 percent to 10,689.15, the S&P 500 was up 0.5 percent to 1,235.2, and the Nasdaq composite finished the day up 0.7 percent at 2,188.57.

Intel lost 4.4 percent on the day to $27.44 after reporting on Tuesday while it had met Wall Street’s earnings expectations, its margins were less than had been expected.

Yahoo lost 11.5 percent to $33.40 when it reported that it had achieved its earnings predictions but couldn’t hit revenue targets.

The news from Yahoo also pulled Google down by 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, GM dropped 0.7 percent to $36.58 on what it characterized as “very disappointing” results.

The S&P, which was down 0.3 percent at one point in the day, was helped by biotechnology company Amgen, which reported an increase of 38 percent in second quarter profits, upon which it raised its forecast for the year. Amgen shares rose 15 percent on the day to $81.17.

Eastman Kodak lost 2.2 percent to $28.10 on the news of its third straight quarterly loss and on the announcement that it would eliminate an additional 10,000 jobs.

A decision handed down by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday afternoon that immediately ended the ban on importation of Canadian cattle into to the US due to fears of mad cow disease sent shares of Tyson Foods Inc. soaring on Friday morning.

The stock gained 7.5 percent, or $1.39 to trade at $19.91 on the New York Stock Exchange early in the day. Under the decision, Canadian cattle might begin to enter the US as early as the end of the summer, according to analysts.

Tyson said on Friday that it is waiting for information from the US Department of Agriculture for details of how and when the border will be reopened to cattle.

The company plans to resume importation of cattle as soon as practically possible. The ban, according to one analyst, had severely cut Tyson’s capacity because there just were not enough cattle to process. Tyson, the worlds largest chicken producer, began processing beef in 2001 and beef is now the largest proportion of its business.

Before the ban, the US had imported about 2 million head of cattle per year from Canada, approximately 8 percent of the cattle slaughtered in the US annually. The ban on importation came in May 2003 after traces of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, were discovered in a cow born in Alberta.

US equities markets ended the day in positive territory on Wednesday on news that the US trade deficit dropped in May as well as on falling oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day up 0.47 percent at 10,577.00, while the Nasdaq composite closed ahead by 0.13 percent to 1,569.00 and the S&P 500 advanced by 0.40 percent to 1,228.30.

Proctor and Gamble was up 1.3 percent to $54.65 and Gilette also gained1.3 percent to $52.36 on the announcement that the two companies had agreed on P&G’s acquisition of Gilette. IBM was also up, by 1.8 percent to $81.51, as Sanford Bernstein raised IBM’s performance rating.

Harley Davidson’s better-than-expected quarterly results sent their shares up 1.7 percent to $50.54. Abbott Laboratories, however, lost 3.6 percent to $47.93 after it said that third-quarter profits will be lower than expected.

As the quarterly earnings season gets into full swing, one of the most awaited results are those from Yum! Brands, which counts among its holdings KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, which had been expected to report late Tuesday afternoon.

Boeing has taken yet another step in it’s effort to once again become the leader in the commercial aerospace industry, a status that had been claimed in recent years by Airbus, Boeing’s European rival.

After an announcement of a new order worth $6 billion from Air Canada, Boeing announced Tuesday that Air India had ordered up to 50 aircraft from the Chicago-based company.

Boeing is also expected to announce an order of eighteen 787s from Northwest Airlines. Northwest was previously Airbus’ third-largest customer.

One factor in Boeing’s new ascendancy over Airbus is that Airbus has not settled on a configuration for its new Airbus A350, and has not received formal approval to build it even though it is already taking orders for the new plane.

The Air India order, which is said to be worth almost $7 billion, includes eight 777-200LRs, fifteen 777-300ERs, and twenty-seven 787s.

The good news that came out of the delayed report of Freddie Mac’s earnings in 2004 is that the fair value of it’s assets had increased by 13 percent last year.

The bad news was that net income of this second-largest mortgage-finance provider in the U.S. had declined by 42 percent.

Still, the federal office that supervises Freddie Mac confirmed that the company had adequate capital. The report was delayed because of an investigation into underreporting of its earnings in the years 2000 through 2002.

The results of the investigation led to restatements of earnings being issued, executives being dismissed, and major changes in Freddie Mac’s accounting and compliance procedures.

There was more good news for Freddie Mac on Thursday. The report of their decline in earnings last year didn’t scare off Wall Street investors. By midday on Thursday, Freddie Mac’s stock had risen by 75 cents a share.

Major Wall Street banks today reported record revenues for Q1.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both reported record earning for Q1, and with earnings for these combined with Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, it brings income for all four Wall Street banks to $4.23bn, up 19% on last year.

Investment banking remains especially profitable, with strong growth on bonds, currencies, equities and commodities. However, there were reports of strong performance across the banking sectors, with debt management and consultancy also proving to be good earners.

Overall, the level of success has not been seen since the dotcom boom years, although the highly profitable merger and acquisition advice has notreturned to pre-bust levels.

Comments from the South Korean central bank led to investor fears of a sell-off of Asian dollar reserves, resulting in a large slid in the dollar's value.

There has already been a movement from US dollar holdings in central banks, to more diverse currency management, not least while the euro and Australian dollar are currently more attractive in the short term.

However, an actual sell-off of dollar reserves would negatively impact the value of the US dollar, when it is already at a low point in the current economic cycle.

Reassurances from Sourth Korea later in the day allayed investors that South Korea was looking at diversification, rather than a sale of reserves, helping the dollar recover some of its losses.

US markets warmed to strong profit results from major coporations today.

Although Boeing reported a profit fall of 84% on last year, due to closure of its 717 programme, this still created above expectation net profits of $186m. The defence arm was especially credited with good performance. And with the Boeing 7E7 due for ceremony in April, 2005 and 2006 are ones the company is confident of strong returns in.

Additionally, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported an 80% increase in Q4 profits to $386m (£205m), with film and DVD sales being particular earners for the company. And these are areas expected to see further growth in 2005.

Google reported profits of over $204.1m for Q4, which again exceeded market expectations, resulting in a stock price's rise that at one point peaked at $216.80 per share.

Amazon was the only large trader to disappoint. Although a tax credit swelled their Q4 earnings to $346.7m, the site of overall revenues climbing but with little return on net profits left shareholders feeling shunned in lieu of consumers, and devalued the company by over 13%.