NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks surged Thursday, as investors welcomed strong quarterly results from Caterpillar and other blue chips, and scooped up a bevy of tech and financial shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 99.73 to 10,809.47, Charts) added 0.9 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 (up 9.15 to 1,273.83, Charts) index climbed 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite (up 22.35 to 2,283.00, Charts) gained 1 percent.

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The upbeat tone on Wall Street enabled investors to set aside rising oil prices, high bond yields and disappointing results from General Motors and others.

"It's certainly impressive today," said Douglas Altabef, managing director at Matrix Asset Advisors.

While next week's Federal Reserve policy-setting meeting and January employment reports could throw stock investors a curveball, overall, many factors are in place that are likely to support stocks at least in the short term, he added.

"You're hearing decent things from a number of bellwether companies," he added, "you're seeing the return of tech, which is a good indicator of business spending, and you can only get scared to death once by oil prices at this level."

William Hummer, principal at Wayne Hummer Inc., said he thinks investors are starting to accept that earnings growth this year will be modest compared to the last few years.

"But that growth will still be good, and stock valuations remain compelling," Hummer added.

After the close Thursday, Microsoft (Research) reported higher quarterly earnings that met analysts' forecasts and higher quarterly revenue that missed forecasts. The company also issued a revenue forecast for the current quarter that sets the midpoint above analysts' forecasts. (Full story).

Shares gained around 1 percent after the close.

Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a higher open Friday, when fair value is taken into account.

Friday brings the December new home sales report and the read on fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth.

Earnings are due Friday from Chevron (Research) and Procter & Gamble (Research), among others.

Dow components Caterpillar (up $3.10 to $65.17, Research), Honeywell (up $1.35 to $37.41, Research) and AT&T (up $0.30 to $25.51, Research) all reported quarterly earnings Thursday morning that rose from a year ago and surpassed Wall Street's forecasts.

Caterpillar stock gained 5 percent; Honeywell gained 3.7 percent and AT&T rose 1.2 percent.

Dow stock Verizon (up $0.30 to $31.68, Research) reported quarterly earnings that fell from a year earlier, but were nonetheless in line with estimates. Shares gained 1 percent.

The fifth Dow company to report results Thursday was General Motors (down $0.80 to $23.05, Research). The automaker reported a loss of $4.8 billion in the quarter, down from a year earlier and far worse than what analysts were expecting. (Full story.)

GM shares fell 3.4 percent, trimming earlier losses.

But GM was the standout loser on the otherwise buoyant Dow 30. Meanwhile, big gainers included Alcoa (up $1.04 to $30.78, Research), Boeing (up $1.81 to $68.72, Research), Merck (up $0.76 to $33.95, Research), Citigroup (up $0.78 to $47.01, Research) and J.P. Morgan Chase (up $1.11 to $39.59, Research).

The latter two reflected a broad surge in the financial sector Thursday. The Amex Securities Broker/Dealer (up 5.11 to 213.39, Charts) index advanced 2.5 percent.

Gains in semiconductors, software and Internet shares fueled a tech rally.

In particular, semiconductor stocks made gains. The Philadelphia Semiconductor (up 15.01 to 536.54, Charts) index, or the SOX, rose 2.9 percent, as all 19 of its components gained.

The biggest gainer on the SOX was Novellus Systems (up $1.96 to $29.88, Research), which added 7 percent after reporting higher quarterly earnings that beat estimates and boosting its profit forecast for the current quarter.

The notable standout to the downside for tech was the networking sector.

Juniper Networks (down $4.46 to $17.06, Research) slumped 20.7 percent and topped the Nasdaq's most-active list after forecasting current-quarter earnings late Wednesday that were below Wall Street's expectations. That overshadowed the networking gear maker's positive earnings report.

Juniper weighed on its sector, dragging down the Amex Networking (down 3.12 to 243.66, Charts) index by 1.3 percent.

Market breadth was positive and volume was robust. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers seven to four on volume of 2.07 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners by more than two to one on volume of 2.44 billion shares.

The equity market has been choppy all week, as investors have tried to parse the large number of earnings for clues about the overall health of corporations and the economy.

Taking some off the sheen off the rally was a rise in oil prices. U.S. light crude oil for March delivery increased 41 cents to settle at $66.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to about 4.51 percent from 4.47 percent late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold slipped $2.40 to settle at $560.10 an ounce.

Market participants seemed to take in stride the morning's economic reports, including a larger-than-expected rise in durable goods orders in December and a smaller-than-expected rise in weekly jobless claims.

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