Stocks Pare Gains in Final Hour

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Blue-chip stocks posted their first weekly gain in three as a wave of strong earnings reports offset worries about Europe and the global economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65 points, or 0.5%, to close at 13,029 after rising to as high as 13,082 earlier Friday.

The S&P 500 added 1 point, or 0.1%, at 1378. The Nasdaq finished in the red, down 7 points or 0.2% at 3000, with shares of Apple(AAPL) hitting a one-month low.

The Dow gained 1.4% this week, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.6% and the Nasdaq lost 0.6%.

Stocks began Friday on a strong note, as investors cheered strong quarterly reports from Dow companies on Thursday and Friday, and good economic data out of Europe. Markets lost steam by the end of the session as investors looked ahead to the earnings reports scheduled for next week.

"Next week there's just a tremendous number of earnings coming out and it's more of a reflection of what we've seen so far, which has been very mediocre earnings with not a lot of positive guidance going forward," says Jeffrey Sica, president and chief investment officer of SICA Wealth Management.

Despite the strong number of better-than-expected quarterly results so far, some investors remain skeptical of the financial state of major companies.

"Earnings continue to impress, outlooks are decent, not outstanding," said Mark Lamkin, president and CEO, Lamkin Wealth Management. Still, he said investors have been too cautious about earnings.

"This is kind of the Rodney Dangerfield economy, and Rodney Dangerfield markets -- it gets no respect," he says. "It's record GDP, it's record S&P 500 earnings, it's the best auto sales since 2008, it's 24 months of employment growth, and investors are still nervous."