NEW YORK - US stocks gained ground Friday as upbeat corporate earnings reports helped extend this week's powerful rally celebrating a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.49 points (0.39 percent) to close at 13,820.19 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 16.93 points (0.64 percent) to 2,671.22.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 6.97 points (0.46 percent) to 1,525.72.
Positive corporate earnings from Oracle and Nike announced after the market closed Thursday lifted sentiment in a day bereft of economic data.
"We had some good corporate news that is helping some sectors," said Peter Cardillo of Avalon Partners.
Wall Street's bullish sentiment revived after Thursday's modest drift lower in profit taking after a strong two-day rally that saw the Dow industrials adding more than 400 points.
The surge was triggered by the Fed's reduction Tuesday of its base federal funds rate by a hefty half point, to 4.75 percent. The Fed had held the rate steady at 5.25 percent since June 2003.
<---------- A big thanks to Mr Bernanke
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