STOCKS rose for the third successive day after the IT giants Microsoft, Texas Instruments and Xilinx reported earnings ahead of market expectations.
The Dow gained 80.07 points to 9,432.31 in midday trading, while the technology-laden Nasdaq index surged 52.27 to 2,459.23.
Shares shrugged off comments from Alan Greenspan, the US Fed chairman, who said the rebound of the past months brought stocks to levels "that appear to envision substantially greater growth of profit than experienced of late".
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