NEW YORK: US stocks notched solid gains Thursday as mostly encouraging earnings reports, including from heavyweights Apple and General Electric helped the market shake off disappointing economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 52.15 points (0.42 percent) to 12,505.69 in closing trade, extending a powerful rally a day earlier.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite climbed 17.65 points (0.63 percent) to 2,820.16, while the broad-market S&P 500-stock index advanced 6.94 points (0.52 percent) to 1,337.30.
"The summation on the latest batch of earnings reports reads very much like the one offered yesterday," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
"There was a glowing report from the headliner -- i.e., Apple -- and there has been a litany of better-than-expected results cutting across economic sectors."
The action came as investors face a three-day Easter holiday weekend. The financial markets will be closed Friday.
"Typically, the stock market rallies ahead of a long weekend as traders often move to cover some short positions," said Frederic Dickson at DA Davidson & Co.
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