Solid corporate earnings gave both blue chips and tech stocks a lift. The Dow rose 62 points to 13,629 while Nasdaq surged 18 points to 2771.
On the upside
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) polished off a solid quarter as sales of its Macintosh computers, iPods and iPhones beat expectations.
BP (NYSE: BP) posted lower profits due to higher costs and refinery outages, but the company expects to overcome its exposure to operational problems this quarter.
AT&T (NYSE: T) posted higher earnings and revenues that doubled as the nation's largest telecommunications company cited growth its wireless business while completing its acquisition of BellSouth.
On the downside
Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT) continued to struggle as its reported a wider loss and lowered its outlook for 2007 and 2008 due to a glut in bandwidth capacity.
Analysts downgraded Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) on worries that its wireless chip business may face margin pressures.
Luxury hand bag and accessories maker Coach (NYSE: COH) may be facing a difficult holiday season due to recent slowdown in traffic to its retail stores.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 6 points to 816.
