Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index headed toward a second straight weekly advance, amid better-than-forecast earnings and speculation a disappointing factory report may mask economic strength.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. gained 2.9 percent after saying it will split its operations in California as one of the final steps of a breakup plan. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and Campbell Soup Co. added more than 3.7 percent as earnings beat forecasts. Men's Wearhouse Inc. tumbled 7.2 percent after its acquisition target, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., proposed to buy the Eddie Bauer brand.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 1,834.45 at 10:39 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56.93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,084.52. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 13 percent below the 30-day average during this time of the day.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.