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Wall Street rallied to finish mostly higher Friday, capping off the week with two days of gains as Hurricane Rita lost strength and raised hopes that its effect on key Gulf Coast refineries wouldn’t be as bad as initially feared.
"I think whenever you have something that’s an event that could create news over the weekend, people get a little more cautious about putting money on the table," said Susan Malley, chief investment officer for Malley Associates Capital Management.
The market also mulled a profit warning from Alcoa Inc. and a pair of discouraging earnings reports from technology firms Oracle Corp. and Palm Inc., an early glimpse of the upcoming third-quarter earnings season.
At the close of trading, the Dow dropped 2.46, or 0.02 percent, to 10,419.59, after sliding as much as 49.75 in early activity.
The broader stock indicators moved higher. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.67, or 0.06 percent, to 1,215.29, and the Nasdaq gained 6.06, or 0.29 percent, to 2,116.84.
Bonds finished lower, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.25 percent from 4.18 percent Thursday. The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading, while gold prices pulled back 17-year highs reached earlier this week.
For the week, the Dow lost 2.09 percent, the S&P declined 1.83 percent and the Nasdaq ended 2.01 percent lower.
The tech sector held its ground despite lackluster reports from Oracle and Palm late Thursday. Software maker Oracle said it squeezed out a slight rise in first-quarter profit. But despite a bigger profit, analysts were disappointed by the company’s database software sales, which rose just 2 percent last quarter. Oracle dropped $1.07, to $12.45.
Palm said higher costs and slumping sales of digital organizers drove a 7 percent decline in quarterly earnings. Palm lost $6.28, or 18 percent, to $28.69.
Meanwhile, Alcoa also warned Thursday that its third-quarter earnings would miss analysts’ expectations, as soaring energy and raw-material costs exacerbate a revenue shortfall from sliding aluminum prices.
JEFF BUCKLEY: "Morning Theft: Sketches of Scottie," a documentary about the late singer-songwriter, screens at 2:15 p.m. Sept. 6.
"PERMANENT VACATION": Frank Harper and David Carradine star in the comedy about a family holiday gone horribly awry. It screens at 5 p.m. Sept. 8.
"THE ELEPHANT KING": Ellen Burstyn stars in the drama, which won a Certificate of Excellence at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. It screens at 7 p.m. Sept. 8.
"AWOL": David Morse, who has appeared in films such as "The Green Mile" and "Disturbia," stars in the feature that screens at noon Sept. 9.
"FLOAT": Paul Kolsby stars in the comedy that chronicles an aspiring filmmaker's efforts to make a movie about a floating women's prison. It opens at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5.
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT: SoCoCal Independent Film Festival co-founders and co-directors Vince Lara, left, and Brian Barsuglia will be hosting the third annual event on Sept. 5.
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Brian Barsuglia and Vince Lara love independent film. They’re filmmakers themselves.
But when they sought a place to see truly independent films, outside the grasp of Hollywood and the movie industry machine, they had a hard time finding that place in Orange County.So they decided to start a film festival of their own.
The third annual SoCal Independent Film Festival begins Wednesday in Huntington Beach, with 73 indie films from around the country and the world. The festival has grown significantly since its start in 2005, when it screened 32 films. Last year’s fest featured 66.
This year, 35 world premieres are planned. Panels, parties and appearances by actors and filmmakers are also in the works.
“These are movies you may not be able to see otherwise,” said Barsuglia, 35, co-founder and event director. “One thing we focus on is showing quality, well-made, entertaining movies.”
While the county already has the Newport Beach Film Festival (which screens hundreds of movies each April) and a couple of other smaller fests, organizers of the SoCal gathering say their event still fills a niche.
“We definitely saw an opening and a need for this type of event that really, truly focused on independent films and strictly independent filmmakers,” Lara said. “We’re really trying to develop more of a community interaction between filmmakers and audience members.”
Plus, organizers believe there’s enough of a film-going audience in Orange County and the region to support the SoCal and other festivals. Todd Quartararo, co-founder of the Newport Beach Film Festival, concurs.
“The more opportunities there are to showcase independent film and the arts in Orange County, the better for everyone,” Quartararo said.
Opening the SoCal festival at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday is the world premiere of “Float,” a comedy directed by Calvin Simmons. It’s about an aspiring filmmaker trying to make an Oscar-worthy movie – about a floating women’s prison.
Other scheduled films include the world premiere Saturday of “Permanent Vacation,” a dark comedy; “The Garage,” a drama that has won awards, on Saturday; and world premieres of the documentaries “Pilgrimage” and “I Wanna Be Like Mike: The Story of the New NBA” on Sunday.
International films include works from Germany, England, the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico and Canada. Many of those filmmakers are expected to attend.
Movies with Orange County connections include “I Wanna Be Like Mike,” directed by Brent Baker of Orange; “Itsy Bitsy,” a short directed by David May, a Chapman University graduate who was a contestant in Fox’s reality TV series “On the Lot”; “Pop Rocks,” a short written and directed by Alex Lubliner of Huntington Beach; and “Room Service” and “Delirium,” shorts directed by Kevin Castro, a former Huntington Beach resident.
The venue for all films and panels – plus an awards presentation at 4:15 p.m. Sunday – is the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center. It’s not the grandest locale, and doesn’t sport a huge screen like Edwards Big Newport does, or the IMAX theater at the Irvine Spectrum.
Plus, anchoring the festival at the central library helps keep costs down. Tickets are $4 for shorts screenings, $6 for features and $30 for an all-festival pass. The opening film and some screenings are free.
“You’re not going to see a movie for $10 ticket prices like you’ll see at the multiplex,” Barsuglia said.
GENEVA – Forty-six countries including the U.S., China and European Union nations failed Sunday to agree on a list of “environmental goods” like solar-powered air conditioners or LED light bulbs that could see lower tariffs.
The two-day meeting at World Trade Organization involved a bid to agree on reducing tariffs on over 200 environment-friendly goods worth around $1 trillion in trade annually, part of a process that EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom called important “to show that trade and the environment can go hand in hand.”
She and other officials said China’s presentation of a late list of goods to include threw a monkey wrench into the weekend negotiations.
The talks amounted to just a step in a broader process on the Environmental Goods Agreement that was already facing uncertainty about how the incoming administration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will approach it.
“In the last seconds, China proposed a list that was not studied enough,” Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said Sunday. “Many countries, they have concerns about the list.”
“We tried really hard,” Malmstrom told reporters, adding that all negotiators were leaving “with clear determination to do this deal … This is important for the environment, for the climate, for our moral obligation to show that trade can deliver after the Paris and Marrakech agreements” to help fight global warming.
One senior negotiator said the last-ditch Chinese effort affected priority items for many other nations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the talks, said China’s new list – which was lopsided in favor of its own priorities – came in at 11 a.m. Sunday local time when others had already agreed upon many other points.
“All delegations had some of their red lines moved in or moved out in a way that it was impossible to deal with in a couple of hours,” Malmstrom said, referring to China’s proposal.