Wall Street rally continues; Dow closes up 23 points

7:15 AM closes, continues, points, rally, Street No Comments

CNBC's Bertha Coombs reports on the week's biggest winners and losers, including shares of Apple rallying post earnings.

U.S. stocks advanced for a fourth day on Friday, led by gains in technology after stronger-than-expected earnings from Amazon.com and Expedia offset a weaker-than-expected reading on economic growth.

Expedia shares surged 26.7 percent to $41.33 and was the top percentage gainer on Nasdaq, followed by Amazon, which climbed 15.5 percent to $226.30.

The gains follow a week of mostly robust earnings results, which have boosted the S&P 500 earnings growth rate to 7.2 percent this week from 3.2 percent at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters data. So far about 73 percent of the companies have beaten expectations.

At the same time, economic data has been mixed, with Friday's data showing first-quarter gross domestic product expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate, below the forecast of 2.5 percent.

"The news is getting worse and worse, and the markets aren't really responding to that," said David James, senior vice president of James Investment Research in Alpha, Ohio. He noted the market is paying closer attention to corporate earnings.

"I tend to think as far as going forward, the big key for people especially looking at tech is what happens with the dollar. I think the dollar will probably be stronger than people expect on a relative basis. Historically that usually means tech is the sector that gets hit the hardest."

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average closed the day up 23.62 points, or 0.18 percent, at 13,229.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 3.41 points, or 0.24 percent, at 1,403.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 18.59 points, or 0.61 percent, at 3,069.20.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both recorded their best weeks in a month. A blowout quarter from Apple gave the Nasdaq its best day of the year earlier this week.

The moves in the indexes have wiped out much of April's losses. After three days of gains, the S&P is well above its 50-day moving average.

On the downside, Procter & Gamble Co shares fell 4.2 percent to $64.05 after it cut its full-year profit view and posted lower earnings.

Starbucks fell 5.4 percent to $57.41 and was one of the biggest percentage decliners on the Nasdaq 100 as weakness in Europe pressured global sales.

Reuters contributed to this report.