Dow hits fresh record

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rose Wednesday on Cisco's strong earnings report, with the Dow Jones industrial average hitting a fresh trading high and the S&P 500 index flirting with 6-1/2 year highs.

The Nasdaq (up 20.16 to 2,491.65, Charts) composite added 0.8 percent roughly 2-1/2 hours into the session, and inched closer to a six-year high.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 20.91 to 12,687.22, Charts) added a few points, hitting a fresh all-time trading high, before pulling back a bit. Should the blue-chip barometer end where it stood at around noon, it would be at an all-time closing high.

The broader S&P 500 (up 4.34 to 1,452.34, Charts) index added about 0.3 percent, touching a 6-1/2 year high.

Cisco Systems (Charts) reported quarterly sales and earnings late Tuesday that rose from a year earlier and topped forecasts. Shares gained 4 percent and the stock was the Nasdaq's most-actively traded.

The company's upbeat earnings report was a relief to investors after a string of discouraging technology sector financial reports.

"The Cisco news helps," said Greg Church, president at Church Capital.

However, he said that the broader factors that have been lifting stocks continue to provide support as well.

"Earnings have been well received, the economy is chugging along and nearly every day we're seeing merger news, private equity deals," Church said.

In addition to Cisco, a variety of large technology shares advanced, including Intel (up $0.34 to $21.65, Charts), Yahoo (up $0.45 to $29.80, Charts) and Hewlett-Packard (up $0.50 to $42.51, Charts).

Broadcom (up $2.01 to $34.00, Charts) rose 6 percent in active Nasdaq trading after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to "overweight" from "equal weight," according to Reuters.

However, gains for the blue-chip averages were more subdued, with select stocks keeping the Dow industrials higher, including Caterpillar (up $1.25 to $65.67, Charts) and DuPont (up $0.73 to $51.34, Charts).

Shares of Dow component Walt Disney (up $0.29 to $35.48, Charts) also inched higher ahead of its quarterly earnings announcement, due after the close Wednesday.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers three to two on volume of 620 million shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by a similar margin on volume of 1.04 billion shares.

Crude oil for March delivery rose 12 cents to $59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of oil seesawed after the weekly inventories report showed a steeper-than-expected decline in heating oil supplies.

Oil prices slumped in the first part of January, before rebounding more recently. Investors are keeping an eye on the $60 a barrel mark. Should the price of oil move back above that again, it could spark a little selling, analysts say, as it is seen as a key psychological level.

On the economic front, the first read on fourth-quarter productivity came in at a 3 percent growth rate, up from the previous month and beating forecasts for a 2 percent reading. Unit labor costs, the report's inflation component, came in at a smaller-than-expected 1.7 percent rate. (Full story).

The overall report seemed to further bets that economic growth, although moderating, remains solid, and that inflation pressures are dwindling.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.73 percent from 4.76 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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

COMEX gold for April delivery rose $2.30 to $661.00 an ounce.

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