Upbeat comments from a Ciscoexecutive and solid earnings reports from Merckand GEboosted stocks on Friday and helped overcome early selling on a mixed wholesale inflation report.
Cisco shares gained nearly 3% after Chief Development Officer Charles Giancarlo was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that sales are at the high end of forecasts. Cisco will report full results next month.
Infosysgained 2.7% on its results, and Rural Cellularsoared 35% on its earnings report.
Apple, meanwhile, fell 2% after delaying its next operating system upgrade.
Medisjumped 10% on a deal with Microsoft.
Keithley, Semitool, Planarand SumTotalslumped on their outlooks.
The Nasdaq rose 11 to 2491, the S&P 500 climbed 5 to 1453, and the Dow rose 59 to 12,612. Volume declined to 2.59 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.98 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by a 19-12 margin on the NYSE, and 19-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 65% on the NYSE, and 67% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 241-16 on the NYSE, and 170-40 on the Nasdaq.