US stocks have closed higher after a series of mixed earnings reports arrived into a market preoccupied with the Boston manhunt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 10.37 (0.07 per cent) to 14,547.51.
The index rallied after spending much of the day in the red.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 13.64 (0.88 per cent) to 1,555.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 39.69 (1.25 per cent) to 3,206.06.
The gains followed earnings reports from Google and Microsoft that exceeded expectations, while IBM and McDonald were laggards.
But volumes were down with the country fixated on the hunt for a suspect in the Boston marathon bombings that took three people’s lives on Monday.
“With things like that happening, you tend to have less activity in the market place and that is reflected in the volumes today,” said Art Hogan of Lazard Capital Markets.
Microsoft jumped 3.5 per cent after reporting better-then-expected profits despite flat quarter-on-quarter revenues in its Windows division.
Google rose 4.4 per cent.
The world’s leading internet search company made up for cheaper ad prices with a 20 per cent increase in the number of paid clicks on ads.
Boeing rose 2.2 per cent after the Federal Aviation Administration approved its plan to fix a battery problem that has grounded its 787 planes.
Consumer and health care products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark rose 4.8 per cent after reporting a 13.5 per cent increase in quarterly profits.
IBM sank 8.3 per cent after revenues came in 5.2 per cent below expectations.
General Electric fell 4.1 per cent after revenues edged lower due to tough conditions in some industrial markets, especially Europe.
McDonald’s shed 1.9 per cent after reporting profits a penny below expectations, citing “the ongoing impact of global economic headwinds”.
Dell dropped 4.0 per cent after announcing that a bidding consortium led by Blackstone Management had withdrawn its takeover offer.
Bond prices dropped.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.70 per cent from 1.69 per cent late on Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 2.88 per cent from 2.86 per cent.
Bond prices move inversely to yields.