US stocks gain in light trading day

US stocks closed higher Friday after a series of mixed earnings reports arrived into a market preoccupied with the Boston manhunt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10.37 (0.07 percent) to 14,547.51. The index rallied after spending much of the day in the red. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 13.64 (0.88 percent) to 1,555.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 39.69 (1.25 percent) to 3,206.06. The gains followed earnings reports from Google and Microsoft that exceeded expectations, while IBM and McDonald were laggards. But volumes were down with the nation fixated on the hunt for a suspect in the Boston marathon bombings that took three people's lives on Monday. "With things like that happening, you tend to have less activity in the market place and that is reflected in the volumes today," said Art Hogan of Lazard Capital Markets. Microsoft jumped 3.5 percent after reporting better-then-expected profits despite flat quarter-on-quarter revenues in its Windows division. Google rose 4.4 percent. The world's leading Internet search company made up for cheaper ad prices with a 20 percent increase in the number of paid clicks on ads. Boeing rose 2.2 percent after the Federal Aviation Administration approved its plan to fix a battery problem that has grounded its 787 plane. Consumer and health care products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark rose 4.8 percent after reporting a 13.5 percent increase in quarterly profits. IBM sank 8.3 percent after revenues came in 5.2 percent below expectations. General Electric fell 4.1 percent after revenues edged lower due to tough conditions in some industrial markets, especially Europe. McDonald's shed 1.9 percent after reporting profits a penny below expectations, citing "the ongoing impact of global economic headwinds." Dell dropped 4.0 percent after announcing that a bidding consortium led by Blackstone Management had withdrawn its takeover offer. Bond prices dropped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.70 percent from 1.69 percent late Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 2.88 percent from 2.86 percent. Bond prices move inversely to yields.