Market Recap: Despite Lousy GDP Data, Markets Close up on Profits Reports

Markets closed up today:

▲ Dow: +0.18 percent

▲ Nasdaq: +0.61 percent

▲ S&P: +0.24 percent

Precious metals:

▲ Gold: up +0.22 percent to $1,662.72 an ounce

▲ Silver: up +0.63 percent to settle at $31.24 an ounce

Commodities:

▲ Oil: +0.23 percent

Markets closed up because:

It took a while, but the Dow Jones industrial average finally gained back all its losses for the month.

On a day of conflicting signals, as investors weighed disappointing economic news against reports of higher profits at big companies, stocks inched higher. All three major indexes were up Friday, though barely.

The Dow climbed 23.69 points to 13,228.31, a tiny 0.2 percent gain. That was enough to push the index into the black for April. It's now 16 points higher than where it began the month.

The Standard & Poor's 500 edged up 3.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,403.36. The Nasdaq composite rose 18.59 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,069.20.

Companies in the S&P 500 are now on track to report a 6 percent rise in earnings for the first three months of 2012 compared with a year ago, according to FactSet, a financial data provider. Last month, Wall Street analysts had expected earnings this quarter to be flat.

The stock gains Friday came despite a government report earlier in the day that the U.S. economy grew at annual rate of 2.2 percent, below the 2.5 percent that economist had expected. It grew at a faster rate, 3 percent, in the final three months of 2011.

European stock markets also rose as investors shrugged off a second downgrade this year by S&P of Spain's debt. Spain also reported its unemployment rate rose to nearly 25 percent, its highest in 18 years.

Spain's IBEX rose 1.7 percent, France's CAC-40 1.1 percent and Germany's DAX 0.9 percent.

However the yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds rose, a sign that investors are still uneasy about the ability of those countries to service their debt. The yield on Spain's benchmark 10-year bond rose 0.08 percentage point to 5.87 percent. Italy's 10-year yield rose 0.11 point to 5.64 percent.

The Dow hit its high for the year on April 2. It fell fast soon after, then bounced around. With Friday's gain, the index is now just 36 points away from that level.

For the week, the Dow is up 1.5 percent, the S&P 500 is up 1.8 percent and the Nasdaq is up 2.3 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.