US stocks finished mixed on Thursday as investors remained cautious amid uncertainty surrounding a resolution of the Greek debt crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.84 points, or 0.36%, to finish at 12,004.36. The S&P 500 increased 3.86 points, or 0.30%, to close at 1,271.50. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 7.22 points, or 0.28%, to 2,616.48.
Early on Friday, Greece named former defense minister Evangelos Venizelos as new finance minister. He will replace George Papaconstantinou as finance minister.
The Conference Board said Friday that its index of leading economic Indicators rose 0.8% in May. Economists had expected a gain of 0.4%.
The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for June dropped to a reading of 71.8, worse than the 73.5 reading that economists had expected.
Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) said late Thursday that its fiscal first quarter profit dropped to $695 million, or $1.33 per share, from $769 million, or $1.38 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue increased 16% to $4.9 billion from $4.24 billion.Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of $1.32 per share on revenue of $5.15 billion. uring the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 13.2 million BlackBerry handheld devices and approximately 500,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets. The company slashed its full-year EPS forecast range to $5.25 to $6 per share; it had previously expected earnings of $7.50 per share for the period. The company also said it plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs and will buy back up to 5% of its outstanding shares. Shares of the company slumped $7.58, or 21.45%, to $27.75.
Shares of Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) slumped 39 cents, or 2.38%, to close at $15.81.
European stocks closed higher. The UK FTSE rose 16.13 points, or 0.28% to 5,714.94. The German DAX and French CAC increased 0.76% and 0.83% respectively.
Asian stocks finished down. The Nikkei 225 declined 59.88 points, or 0.68%, to 9,351.40. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong fell 257.85 points, or 1.17%, to 21,695.26.
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