Investors Continue Focus On Earnings

U.S. stocks surged last week following yet another strong batch of earnings.

Earnings results from heavy weights such as Caterpillar (CAT), 3M (MMM), UPS (UPS) and AT&T (T) all topped earnings estimates and raised their outlooks.

Some economists pointed to data that seemed to show some weakness. Weekly jobless claims jumped, but it may have been due to seasonal factors.

The markets have been trying to sort out all the data and it seems that for now investors have decided that the positive corporate earnings from so many sectors do not indicate a slowdown in the economic recovery. And even if there is some weak elements, those are not affecting companies' profits in general.

For the week the S&P 500 index was up nearly 3%.