US stocks close higher

Wall Street bounded higher today, lifting the Nasdaq composite index well over 1% after profit reports from Yahoo and Sun Microsystems restored investors’ confidence in the tech sector.

The Dow Jones industrials logged fresh trading and closing highs. Tech stocks have borne most of Wall Street’s concern about the health of corporate earnings in recent weeks.

In an essentially all-earnings day, investors were left without new economic data to help provide some clues about the direction of interest rates. The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index jumped 34.87, or 1.43%, to 2,466.28. The gain marked the Nasdaq’s biggest one-day increase since early December.

The Dow rose 87.97, or 0.70%, to 12,621.77 after rising 56.64 yesterday.

The Dow surpassed a record close of 12,582.59 set on January 16; it was the Dow’s 26th record close since the blue chip average began its run-up at the start of October.

The Dow also reached a record intraday high of 12,623.45, topping a trading high of 12,614.00 reached a week earlier. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index reached a six-year high, rising 12.14, or 0.85%, to 1,440.13.