U.S. Stocks Rise; Wal-Mart, General Electric, Citigroup Gain By Eric Martin Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks climbed, limiting the week's losses, as shoppers packed department stores on the first day of the holiday shopping season and investors speculated a weak dollar will make exports more competitive. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. gained as shoppers headed to stores for ``Black Friday'' sales. General Electric Co., the world's biggest maker of jet engines, paced an advance of exporters as the dollar traded near a record low against the euro. Citigroup Inc. rose for the first time in six days on a report that U.S. banks are ready to move forward with a plan to revive credit markets with a so-called superfund to buy assets from structured investment vehicles. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 23.18, or 1.6 percent, to 1,439.95 at 12:48 p.m. in New York, paring the week's loss to 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 159.57, or 1.3 percent, to 12,958.61 and is down 1.2 percent for the week. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 37.28, or 1.5 percent, to 2,599.43, cutting its weekly drop to 0.7 percent. About nine stocks gained for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Some 452 million shares traded on the Big Board, half as many as a week ago, ahead of a 1 p.m. close. ``The fact that Black Friday is not a disaster and is off to a modest but healthy start is just a relief,'' said Mark Bronzo, who helps manage $500 million at Nationwide Separate Accounts in Irvington, New York. ``The scenario we've all been operating under for the last several months is that the retail world is coming to an end. That's not the case.'' Yearly Gain Today's rally pushed the S&P 500 to a 1.5 percent advance for the year after a drop on Nov. 21 wiped out the benchmark's 2007 gain. Retailers in the index have fallen 17 percent as a group this year on concern that rising energy prices and slumping home values will depress spending. Retail shares in the S&P 500 advanced 2.7 percent today with 29 of 30 companies gaining. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, gained $1.38 to $46.24. Target, the second-biggest U.S. discounter, added $2.89 to $56.99. Sears Holdings Corp., the largest U.S. department- store chain, climbed $3.51 to $113.83. J.C. Penney Co., the third biggest, gained $1.42 to $41.49. ``It seems like there's a lot of traffic in the stores, so that's a positive,'' said Michael Nasto, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc., which manages $5 billion in San Antonio. ``People might be thinking the sell-off we had the last few days was overdone.'' Exporters, Banks Gain General Electric added 43 cents to $37.60. Europe accounted for about one quarter of the company's net sales last year. International Business Machines Corp. rose $1.80 to $104.02. The world's second-biggest software maker generated more than half of its revenue outside of the Americas in 2006. Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank, added 83 cents to $31.56. Citigroup, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which have been putting together the plan to create the superfund, are likely to start asking other banks to sign up to specific financial terms next week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank, gained 91 cents to $43.05. JPMorgan, the third-biggest, climbed $1.21 to $41.89. Wells Fargo & Co., the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender, added $1.06 to $30.98. The plan is to create a fund amounting to $75 billion to $100 billion as a potential buyer of assets from structured investment vehicles, off-balance-sheet entities that have gotten into difficulties because of lack of liquidity in credit markets. So far, other banks have expressed informal interest, the newspaper said. Apple, E*Trade E*Trade Financial Corp. gained $1.09, or 26 percent, to $5.35. The second-worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year rose on a CNBC report the online brokerage is in talks to sell itself or part of its business. Apple Inc. gained $2.89 to $171.35. The maker of the iPod music player agreed to pay $10 million to settle a patent- infringement lawsuit by Burst.com Inc. over technology that stores audio and video files. The settlement, which isn't yet final, provides Apple with a license to Burst.com's patents, plus a pledge that Burst won't sue Apple again over future patents, Burst said. Ford, GM Carmakers advanced after a report said the U.S. Congress may adopt separate fuel-efficiency standards for cars and sport- utility vehicles in order to help pass an energy bill this year. General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, rose 85 cents to $27.24. Ford Motor Co., the second-biggest, climbed 26 cents to $7.21. Democratic leaders have intensified talks with Republicans in an effort to find compromise legislation and a senior administration official said the odds that a law will be adopted have improved significantly, the Wall Street Journal said. Rising oil prices have increased pressure on lawmakers to speed up energy-saving legislation, the Journal reported. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world's second- largest producer of copper, advanced $3.59 to $93.65. Copper climbed the most in a week, rebounding from an eight-month low, as investors and traders judged this month's 14 percent decline is overdone. The dollar dropped as low as $1.4967 per euro, the weakest since the single European currency's debut in 1999, on speculation deepening U.S. credit-market losses will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. The U.S. currency also fell below 108 yen for the first time since 2005. ``The weak dollar is certainly good for exporters,'' said Oliver Opgen-Rhein, a trader at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt in Dusseldorf, Germany. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said policy makers may need to address the weakness of the dollar if it threatens to stoke inflation. The decline in the subprime mortgage market ``is over'' because the market ``went to zero and cannot go any further,'' Greenspan said at a conference in Oslo, Norway, today. He added that the ``conventional'' mortgage market is ``doing reasonably well.''
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