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8A – Daily News – Tuesday, October 19, 2010 homebuilders pushed the stock market broadly higher Monday, extending its gains for the month. Better-than-expected results from Citigroup Inc. Bank stocks push market broadly higher Wall Street NEW YORK (AP) — Upbeat news for banks and drove financial stocks up by more than 2 percent, halt- ing a recent slide brought on by questions into how banks have handled foreclosures. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 81 points. Citigroup said fewer of its customers defaulted on loans, an encouraging sign that consumer’s balance sheets may be improving. Citi’s shares rose 5.6 per- cent, lifting shares of other banks along with it includ- ing Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bank shares fell last week as fallout spread from accu- sations that banks had improperly processed large amounts of foreclosures. The National Association of Home Builders report- ed that its housing market index, which measures builder confidence in the sales of new, single-family homes, rose by three points in October. It was the first time that the measure had risen since June, which came shortly after the end of a federal tax rebate for first-time homebuyers. This is a busy week for investors, with 113 stocks in the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index reporting earn- ings. After the bell, Apple Inc. reported a 70 percent gain in net income, but its revenues came in short of anlaysts’ expectations. IBM Corp.’s income rose 12 percent, but the value of its services contracts declined. Shares of both tech companies fell in after- hours trading. The stock market is up more than 3 percent this month, which is leading some investors to conclude that traders are buying on any sign of good news. ‘‘It seems like these days that every little bit of good infor- mation, no matter how materially irrelevant, is some- thing that the market latches on to,’’ said Peter Zuger, the manager of the Touchstone Mid-Cap Value fund. Traders are anticipating that the Federal Reserve will soon initiate a program to buy more bonds, which would drive interest rates down and make stocks more attractive. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.91, or 0.73 percent, to 11,143.69. The shares of 24 of the 30 stocks that make up the index rose during the day, with IBM and Exxon Mobil Corp. among the measure’s top gainers. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.52, or 0.72 percent, to 1,184.71, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.89, or 0.48 percent, to 2,480.66. In other earnings reports, Halliburton Co.’s profit rose. But its revenue fell short of expectations, send- ing its shares lower. The oil services company has been hampered by a ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Citigroup rose 22 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $4.17. Wells Fargo rose $1.29, or 5.4 percent, to $24.87. JPMorgan rose $1.05, or 2.8 percent, to $38.20. Apple rose $3.26 cents to $318.00. Apple shares surged above the $300 level for the first time last week and are up 12 percent for the month. Halliburton shares fell $1.73, or 4.8 percent, to $34.09, while IBM rose $1.77 cents to $142.83. Bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.51 percent from 2.57 percent late Friday. Its yield is often used as a benchmark to set interest rates on mortgages and other loans. Trading volume on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange came to 4.5 billion shares, where two stocks rose for every one that fell. Soldier: Dying woman at Fort Hood cried ’My baby!’ FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A pregnant sol- dier shot during a rampage at a Texas Army post last year cried out, ‘‘My baby! My baby!’’ as others crawled under desks, dodged bullets that pierced walls and rushed to help their bleeding comrades, a military court heard Mon- day. A soldier had just told Spc. Jonathan Sims that she was expecting a baby and was preparing to go home, when the first vol- ley of gunfire rang out Nov. 5 in a Fort Hood building where soldiers get medical tests before and after deploying. ‘‘The female soldier that was sitting next to me was in the fetal position. She was screaming: ’My baby! My baby!’’’ Sims said. Pvt. Francheska Velez, a 21-year-old from Chica- go, had become pregnant while serving in Iraq. She was among the 13 killed in the worst mass shooting on an American military base. Sims was one of 10 sol- diers to testify Monday at an Article 32 hearing that will determine whether Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan will stand trial on 13 counts of pre- meditated murder and 32 counts of attempted pre- meditated murder. Spc. Dayna Roscoe tes- tified she was in an over- flow waiting area in the medical building when the gunman shot her in the left arm as she hid in a chair with her arms wrapped around her head. He turned away, fired in another direction and then came back and shot her twice more, hitting her leg. When the gunman left, Roscoe said, she could hear another soldier, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, ‘‘say she’d been shot in the abdomen and was bleed- ing. She wanted someone to tell her family that she loved them and that she wasn’t going to make it.’’ Warman, 55, a military physician assistant from Havre De Grace, Md., also died that day. Pfc. Justin Johnson said he started crawling toward a cubicle and others dove to the ground when the gunfire erupted. ‘‘He was aiming his weapon on the ground and he started shooting, and he was hitting people that were trying to get away,’’ Johnson testified by video link from Kandahar in Afghanistan. ‘‘It didn’t seem like he was targeting a specific person, sir. He was just shooting at any- body.’’ None of the witnesses Monday were asked to identify Hasan in court as the shooter. Several wit- nesses testified last week that they made eye contact with Hasan and identified him as the Fort Hood gun- man. Witnesses last week and Monday told similar stories of how a man in an Army combat uniform stood by a front counter, shouted ‘‘Allahu Akbar!’’ — ‘‘God is great!’’ in Ara- bic — and started shoot- ing. Many startled soldiers thought it was a training exercise. Sgt. 1st Class Miguel Valdivia said he continued thinking it was a drill, even after he saw sol- diers fall to the floor, until he was shot three times. ‘‘When I saw my own blood, then I realized it was real,’’ Valdivia said. During cross-examina- tion, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, a defense attorney, asked Valdivia if he initially told investigators that the gun- man had ‘‘a blank expres- sion on his face, almost like he was not there.’’ Valdivia said he meant that the shooter’s expres- sion was similar to how ‘‘a drill sergeant looked at me at boot camp.’’ Upcoming witnesses are expected to include the two Fort Hood police offi- cers credited with taking the gunman down. Hasan, 40, who was paralyzed from the chest down after being shot, remains jailed. At some point after the hearing, Col. James L. Pohl, the investigating officer in the case, will recommend whether Hasan should go to trial. 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