Stocks rose Thursday after the U.S. lowered the terrorism warning level and Iraq said it would comply with a UN demand to destroy missiles.
Economic reports were mixed, with durable orders beating estimates, but jobless claims remained high and new home sales tumbled.
The Nasdaq rose 20 to 1323, the S&P 500 gained 9 to 837, and the Dow climbed 78 to 7884. Volume declined to 1.27 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.28 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 21-10 on the NYSE, and 19-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 73% on the NYSE, and 72% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 54-60 on the NYSE, and 60-61 on the Nasdaq.
After the close, Novellus reiterated guidance. Marvell
matched estimates.
During the day, Lucent rose 5.3% after settling an SEC probe.
Comcast surged 7.1% on better than expected results.
Intel , up 2.8%, announced a WiFi partnership with major hotel chains.
IBM , down 0.2%, teamed up with Sony on a gaming grid. IBM declined late in the day on reports that it will lay off 1,000 employees.
Microsoft , off 0.1%, issued a critical patch for Windows Me. Chairman Bill Gates is on a tour of China to boost business in that country.
RealNetworks lost 2.8% on speculation that the company may acquire rival Listen.com.
Mercury Interactive fell 5.3% on valuation concerns. EMC
dropped 5.1% on a downgrade.
Qualcomm , up 2.2%, began giving away encryption software.
Retek soared 18% on an upgrade.
Avenue A , down 1%, announced a name change to aQuantive.
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