Stocks posted modest gains Thursday, as solid productivity and retail sales reports and falling jobless claims helped investors overcome jitters ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs report.
ADC Telecom was a big winner for the tech sector, gaining 8% after tripling its earnings from the year-ago quarter.
Apple lost ground again, this time after CEO Steve Jobs apologized for iPhone price cuts and pledged $100 credits to previous buyers.
Tibco fell 7% after lowering guidance, and CDC
tumbled on its results.
Level 3 lost 4% on a downgrade, while Conexant
jumped on an upgrade.
Clearwire soared after rolling out service in Nashville.
The Nasdaq added 8 to 2614, the S&P 500 rose 6 to 1478, and the Dow gained 57 to 13,363. Volume declined to 2.46 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.87 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by a 20-12 margin on the NYSE, and 16-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 65% on the NYSE, and 59% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 43-69 on the NYSE, and 85-58 on the Nasdaq.