NEWS BRIEFS

Market Wrap-Up

Stocks recovered most of their losses and the Dow closed with modest losses, as oil prices closed at a record $126.29 a barrel.

Economic Reports:

Building Permits are at 978,000 for the month of April, up from a revised 932,000 in the prior month - Full story;

Housing Starts are at 1,032,000 units for the month of April, up from a revised 954,000 units the prior month - Full story;

Michigan Consumer Sentiment (Prel) is at 59.5 for the month of May, down from 62.6 from the prior month - Full story.

Nordstrom Inc. reports 1st-qtr earnings of $0.54/share, down from $0.60/share in the year ago period - Full story.

Kohl's reports 1st-qtr earnings of $0.49/share, higher than the $0.44/share expected by Wall Street - Full story.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. reports 1st-qtr profits of $0.69/share, up from $0.65/share in the same qtr last year - Full story.

British Airways reports a full-year profit of $1.3 billion, will pay a dividend for the first time in seven years - Full story.

Lockheed Martin Corp. has won an Air Force contract worth approximately $3.57 billion to build up to 12 global positioning satellites - Full story.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. plans to cut approximately 5% if its workforce in an attempt to deal with turbulence in the financial markets - Full story.

Major overseas markets have posted mostly higher results for Friday. London's FTSE was up 0.84%, Frankfurt's DAX closed up 1.07%, and Paris' CAC finished up 0.41%. Japan's Nikkei was down 0.23%; Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 0.41%, and Sydney's All Ordinaries Index finished up 0.69%.

Economic Calendar:

Mon: Leading Indicators;
Tues: PPI;
Wed: No Reports Today;
Thurs: Initial Jobless Claims and Existing Home Sales;
Fri: No Reports Today.

Aaron Jacobs - News Editor
aaron.jacobs@mworld.com

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