NEW YORK (AP) - Encouraging earnings from Cisco and hopeful signs in a housing report lifted the stock market Thursday. The gains nudged the Standard & Poor's 500 index near the four-year high it reached earlier this year.
Cisco Systems led the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, surging 10 percent. The world's largest maker of computer networking equipment reported earnings late Wednesday that beat expectations, and it raised its quarterly dividend to 14 cents per share from 8 cents. Cisco gained $1.67 to $19.02.
Before the market opened Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that construction of single-family homes and apartments dipped 1.1 percent in July compared with June.
But market analysts seized on another number: Building permits jumped to 812,000, the most since August 2008 and a hint of stronger construction in coming months.
"I think the housing numbers really got investors' attention," said Tim Speiss, chairman of the personal wealth advisers practice at EisnerAmper.
"Presumably, ground is going to get broken. Houses are going to get built," he said. "It feeds other parts of the economy. A house isn't just sticks and bricks. It's everything else that goes into building a house."
The report helped push the S&P 500 and the Dow near their highest closing levels since 2007.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 9.98 points Thursday to close at 1,415.51, less than four points shy of the high it hit April 2.
The Dow rose 85.33 points to 13,250.11, an increase of 0.6 percent. That's 29 points away from its peak of 13,279 notched May 1.
In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index rose 31.46 points to 3,062.39.
The S&P 500 has rallied more than 5 percent in the last three weeks, with the bulk of the gains made on a few days in late July and early August. The first jolt was a pledge to protect the euro currency by the head of the European Central Bank, the second a report that showed stronger-than-expected U.S. hiring last month.