Weekly Market Wrap: January 27, 2012
Friday, January 27, 6:05 PM ET

Hi. I'm Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday January 27, 2012.

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed for the week, while the Nasdaq was higher this week.

Crude oil futures are higher this week, trading around $99.68 per barrel on Friday afternoon.

Gold futures are higher this week, to around $1738.09 an ounce.

In notable economic news this week, the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, while economists had expected 3 percent growth.

In corporate news this week, Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) announced income for the fourth quarter of $921 million, or $1 per diluted share, excluding a $15 million charge, after-tax, or $0.02 per diluted share, for an environmental-related matter.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) announced on Tuesday that it lost $2.02 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the last quarter of 2011, versus a profit of $2.64 billion, or 93 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 7.7 percent to $28.4 billion versus $26.4 billion a year ago. The results met analyst expectations. The loss was attributed to a one time pension charge and expenses related to the launch of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone on the company's wireless network.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) announced on Wednesday that its profit dropped 53 percent in the fourth quarter but revenue rose 7 percent on stronger sales of glass for flat-screens. Net income was $491 million, or 31 cents per share, versus $1.04 billion, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 7 percent to $1.89 billion from $1.77 billion. Margins were hurt, however, as the firm lowered glass prices to help struggling LCD panel manufacturers.

3M (NYSE:MMM) announced higher than expected quarterly earnings due to strong demand from industrial and transport markets that was able to offset weak demand from its consumer electronics units. Earnings were $954 million, or $1.35 per share, versus $928 million, or $1.28 per share, in the same period last year. Analysts had expected $1.31 per share. Revenues increased to $7.1 billion, which met analyst estimates.