U.S. stocks rose on Thursday for the fifth time in six trading sessions, while the Canadian benchmark index was held back by declining commodity producers.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,170.56, up 84.54 points or 0.7 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1309.66, up 12.12 points or 0.9 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 14,029.37, down 57.81 points or 0.4 per cent.
The day's backdrop wasn't entirely positive for stocks. While U.S. initial jobless claims for the period ended last week were in line with economists' expectations, the decline was slight, at 5,000. Meanwhile, durable goods orders in February fell 0.9 per cent, against expectations for a 1.2 per cent increase. And political chaos in Portugal raised expectations that the country is going to need a bailout.
Nevertheless, investors were able to look beyond these problems, driving up technology stocks in particular. Hewlett-Packard Co. rose 2.5 per cent. Red Hat Inc. rose 18.2 per cent and Micron Technology rose 8.4 per cent, a day after the two companies released their respective quarterly results.
In other moves, Home Depot Inc. rose 2 per cent and Pfizer Inc. rose 1.9 per cent. However, Bank of America Corp. fell 1.3 per cent, continuing a weak streak that followed the Federal Reserve's decision to quash the bank's plans to raise its dividend.
In Canada, commodity producers were the biggest drags on performance after initial gains in the price of crude oil and gold reversed course. Nexen Inc., which fell sharply on Wednesday when the U.K. government proposed raising taxes on oil and gas producers in the country, fell another 1.2 per cent. Suncor Energy Inc. fell 0.8 per cent. Among gold producers, Barrick Gold Corp. fell 1.4 per cent.
However Research In Motion Ltd. rose 2.6 per cent during regular trading hours, ahead of the release of its quarterly financial results. In the fourth quarter, RIM reported revenue of $5.6-billion (U.S.), up 36 per cent over last year. Net earnings were $934-million, or $1.78 a share, up from $1.27 a share last year. During the quarter, it shipped 14.9 million BlackBerry devices.