Wall Street gets splash

of good news; S&P rises

U.S. stocks rallied, capping the best week since February for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, after companies from Citigroup Inc. to Google Inc. to Caterpillar Inc. posted results that topped analysts' estimates.

The market, battered last week by General Electric Co.'s disappointing results, climbed Friday after Citigroup's loss was less than the most pessimistic projections and profits at Google and Caterpillar were boosted by overseas growth. Honeywell International Inc. and Xerox Corp. also advanced on better-than-forecast results. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose, extending its weekly gain to 4.3 percent.

''People are coming to the realization that, excluding the finance sector, the earnings profile looks pretty good,'' said Michael Mullaney, a money manager at Fiduciary Trust Co.Stock price turnaround

Google beats analyst

estimates, shares rise 20%

Google Inc. posted the biggest gain since its initial public offering after profit trounced analysts' estimates, spurred by overseas growth and a bigger-than-predicted jump in the number of users clicking on text advertisements.

Google, owner of the most popular Internet search engine, advanced $89.87, or 20 percent, to close at $539.41 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares debuted in August 2004.

International sales soared 55 percent, outpacing total growth and allaying concerns that Google is suffering from a U.S. economic slump. Excluding some costs, profit topped the average Wall Street estimate by 32 cents a share and beat predictions of all but one of the 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Google had dropped 35 percent on the Nasdaq this year before Friday, making it the seventh worst performer in the Nasdaq 100 Index.

Chinese inflation

Food shortages drive prices up 8.3% in March

China issued more gloomy inflation news Friday, saying prices of farm goods jumped 25.5 percent in the first quarter and housing costs rose 11 percent in March despite efforts to damp price rises that are battering ordinary Chinese.

Communist leaders, worried about a possible public backlash, are trying to ease food shortages blamed for the price spike that began in mid-2007. But winter storms disrupted that effort, and analysts expect inflation to stay high as late as May before subsides.

Retail consumer prices rose 8.3 percent in March, a slight decline from February's 8.7 percent, the highest rate in nearly 12 years. That was driven by a 21 percent rise in food costs, including a 66.7 percent increase for pork, the country's staple meat.

Wendy's buyout move

Billionaire investor seeks shareholder meeting

A key shareholder of Wendy's International Inc. says the third-largest hamburger chain has rejected two offers to buy the chain and that he wants a special shareholder meeting to discuss the company's future.

Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Partners said Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is concerned about future of Wendy's.

Wendy's board formed a committee a year ago to determine how to increase its stock price. One option could include a possible sale.

Wendy's declined to comment on Friday. It said in January that the review was nearly complete.

Through Trian and with his allies, Peltz controls 9.8 percent of Wendy's stock, according to the regulatory filing. Peltz's Triarc Cos. owns Arby's, which has more than 3,000 restaurants.

Residential retreat

AT&T slashes more jobs

as landline phones fade

AT&T Inc. said it would fire about 4,650 workers, trimming the managerial ranks in its fading home phone business after more than $100 billion in acquisitions.

The decision covers about 1.5 percent of the work force, San Antonio-based AT&T said Friday in a regulatory filing. The dismissals at the largest U.S. phone company are in addition to the 10,000 announced with the $86 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. in December 2006, spokesman Walt Sharp said.

Most of the reductions apply to the local-phone business, Sharp said. That unit lost 1.6 million residential lines last year as customers switched to cable and wireless phone service. AT&T has sought to reduce overlap in its operations since buying BellSouth and the former AT&T Corp., with plans to slash annual costs by about $7 billion by 2009.