After showing a lack of direction earlier in the session, stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of morning trading on Thursday. The major averages have climbed more firmly into positive territory, although buying interest has remained relatively subdued.
The strength that has emerged on Wall Street may be partly due to a positive reaction to quarterly results from technology bellwether Cisco Systems (CSCO), with the networking giant surging up by 8.1 percent on the day.
The gain by Cisco comes after the company reported better than expected fourth quarter adjusted earnings. The company also announced a 75 percent increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.14 per share.
Networking stocks have moved notably higher on the news, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 2.5 percent. Significant strength has also emerged among other tech stocks, with electronic storage, software, and semiconductor stocks posting notable gains.
Outside of the tech sector, gold stocks have shown a strong move to the upside, resulting in a 2.1 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The strength among gold stocks comes as gold for December delivery is climbing $11.70 to $1,618.30 an ounce.
Most of the other major sectors are showing only modest moves following the release of another batch of mixed U.S. economic data.
The major averages have pulled back off their highs for the session in the past few minutes but continue to post moderate gains. The Dow is up 33.03 points or 0.3 percent at 13,197.81, the Nasdaq is up 15.34 points or 0.5 percent at 3,046.27 and the S&P 500 is up 3.95 points or 0.3 percent at 1,409.48.
by RTT Staff Writer
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