Modest Gains Push Stocks to Record Highs

Stocks closed modestly higher on Wall Street, notching record highs for several major US indexes, the AP reports. Gains for big technology and health care companies drove the market higher Friday. Microsoft climbed 1.4% and Amgen increased 1.2%. Banks lagged the rest of the market. JPMorgan Chase fell 0.9% after saying it expects weaker interest income going forward. Big-dividend stocks like utilities and real estate companies rose as bond yields fell. Real estate company GGP gained 2.9%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 11 points, or 0.5%, to 2,459. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84 points, or 0.4%, to 21,637. The Nasdaq composite rose 38 points, or 0.6%, to 6,312. (More stock market stories.)