Tech Leads Stocks to 5th Straight Gain

A surge in marquee technology companies pushed stocks higher again Thursday on Wall Street, giving the market its fifth gain in a row, the AP reports. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 300 points. Big increases from Apple, Microsoft, and Cisco drove the tech sector higher, helping to erase more of the swift drop stocks had in early February. Industrial companies were also higher. Boeing, which nearly doubled last year, rose another 3.4%. Energy companies were the lone laggard among the 11 sectors in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

The S&P 500 rose 32 points, or 1.2%, to 2,731. The Dow climbed 306 points, or 1.2%, to 25,200. The Nasdaq climbed 112 points, or 1.6%, to 7,256.

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