NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A big afternoon rally sent U.S. stocks to a higher close Friday and for the week, with buyers jumping in on the heels of the morning's solid earnings news and positive economic reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 172.06 to 9284.57, Charts) added 1.9 percent, and the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 17.08 to 998.68, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 29.28 to 1730.70, Charts) both gained 1.7 percent.

The rally was broad-based, with all 30 Dow stocks closing higher. Some 28 of the 30 stocks closed with gains of at least 1 percent. Among the best performers: both IBM (IBM: up $2.04 to $83.55, Research, Estimates) and 3M (MMM: up $2.05 to $141.40, Research, Estimates) added more than $2.

Gains of 3.5 percent in Microsoft (MSFT: up $0.89 to $26.89, Research, Estimates) and Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), two Dow stocks that are also among the most heavily weighted on the Nasdaq, added to the upward swing.

The morning's strong reads on durable goods orders and new home sales, as well as decent earnings from Pfizer, Priceline.com and others, paced the advance.

For the week, all three major indexes closed higher, with the Dow adding 1 percent, the S&P 500 adding 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq composite adding 1.3 percent. It was the fourth higher week in a row for the Dow, and for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, it was the third higher close out of four weeks, after both closed lower last week.

But the week's gains still kept the major indexes within the range they've been treading over the past few weeks. While Friday's rally was positive, it capped off what has been a volatile week, marked by fickle trade and summer-light volume, as investors sifted through the huge slew of quarterly earnings and a few economic reports.

"On balance, we're spinning our wheels right now, but that's OK, because this time of year is historically treacherous for the markets. So considering that, we're doing pretty well," said Donald Selkin, director of research at Joseph Stevens. "We're likely to trade sideways over the next two months.

Roughly two-thirds of the S&P 500 companies have reported second-quarter results as of Friday, and so far, more than two-thirds of the earnings have been better than expected. But investors have taken a skittish approach to the earnings, sometimes buying stocks following a solid report, sometimes not.

"The stocks that are benefiting most from better earnings are the small and mid-cap ones," Selkin added.

Next week marks the last big week of earnings, with reports expected from a spate of influential companies, including Walt Disney, Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's and DuPont. (For a detailed look at what to expect from some of these reports, click here.)

Monday's biggest earnings report comes from Dow component American Express (AXP: up $1.20 to $45.60, Research, Estimates). Due during trading hours, the company is forecast to have earned 57 cents per share, up from 51 cents a year earlier.

Also due Monday: earnings from Kellogg (K: up $0.44 to $34.00, Research, Estimates) and Northrop Grumman (NOC: up $0.95 to $87.10, Research, Estimates) before the bell and Sprint (FON: up $0.39 to $15.19, Research, Estimates) and Sprint PCS (PCS: up $0.07 to $6.32, Research, Estimates) after the close.

There are no economic reports due Monday.

News that durable goods orders rose 2.1 percent in June, better than the 1.0 percent rise analysts had been expecting and the flat reading in May, helped the market get its initial boost. This was followed by reports of a 4.7 percent rise in new home sales in June, to a record annual rate of 1.16 million, as well as a decline of 0.3 percent in existing home sales for the month, which was worse than expected.

Following on the back of Thursday's better-than-expected drop in the weekly jobless claims number, the economic data for the last two days have been strong, providing encouragement that a second-half recovery is under way.

Shares of Priceline.com (PCLN: up $6.61 to $31.85, Research, Estimates) soared 26.2 percent. After the close of trade Thursday, the online discount travel service reported earnings of 20 cents a share, up from 16 cents a year ago and 6 cents better than expected. Priceline also raised its forecast for the current quarter.

In the day's biggest deal, Swiss drug company Roche Holdings said it would buy U.S. diagnostics company Igen International (IGEN: up $22.05 to $59.25, Research, Estimates) for around $1.4 billion. Igen shares gained 59 percent in active Nasdaq trade.

Friday was the lightest earnings day of the week. The biggest company that reported was Pfizer (PFE: up $0.49 to $33.04, Research, Estimates), which posted earnings of 30 cents a share, excluding the cost of its purchase of Pharmacia. The results were a penny better than expected and 3 cents less than a year earlier. The stock closed slightly higher.

But shares of JDS Uniphase (JDSU: down $0.30 to $2.85, Research, Estimates) fell 9.4 percent and topped the Nasdaq's most-active list after the supplier of parts for fiber-optic networks forecast weak sales for the current quarter due to the fact that customers like Lucent (LU: down $0.03 to $1.79, Research, Estimates) and Nortel (NT: down $0.07 to $2.98, Research, Estimates) have seen big declines in telecom spending.

Late Thursday, Nortel Networks (NT: down $0.07 to $2.98, Research, Estimates) reported earnings that were breakeven on a per-share basis, in line with estimates and up from a loss of 20 cents a year earlier. Shares lost 2.3 percent and topped the NYSE's most-active list.

Investors also took profits on eBay (EBAY: down $3.50 to $112.24, Research, Estimates), sending the auctioneer 4 percent lower in active Nasdaq trade even though the company reported better-than-expected results and issued an improved forecast.

Market breadth was positive on light volume. Advancers beat decliners by nearly two to one on the NYSE as 1.37 billion shares traded, while winners topped losers by more than nine to seven on the Nasdaq as 1.57 billion shares traded.

Treasury prices closed modestly lower, with the 10-year note yield at 4.18 percent. The dollar slipped against the yen and euro.

NYMEX light sweet crude oil futures fell 5 cents to $30.17 a barrel. COMEX gold settled at $362.80 an ounce.