NEW YORK (AP) - Better corporate earnings helped nudge the stock market up on Thursday in one of the quietest sessions this year.
Health-care companies led the major indexes to slight gains, while Berkshire Hathaway crossed another milestone, trading above $200,000 a share for the first time.
With many who work in the markets on vacation, trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange thinned out: just 2.6 billion shares on Thursday. An average day this year is nearly 1 billion higher.
Stronger profits for Perrigo, a drugmaker, drove its stock up 7 percent, the biggest gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Perrigo jumped $10.14 to end at $149.29. Another drugmaker, Merck, gained 93 cents, or 2 percent, to $58.78 following news that it won federal approval for a new sleeping pill.
The S&P 500 climbed up 8.46 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 1,955.18. Health care companies led nine of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 up.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61.78 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,713.58 while the Nasdaq composite climbed 18.88 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,453.00.
Markets often slip into a summertime lull in August. Trading desks remain short-staffed until people return from vacation after the Labor Day holiday. Without any major developments, trading volume usually dries up and stock indexes turn sleepy, as if stuck in their beach chairs.
The S&P 500 is still hovering near record highs, leading some analysts to fret that the market looks too expensive. Lawrence Creatura, a fund manager at Federated Investors, argued that the solid second-quarter earnings season, which is nearly wrapped up, should put investors' worries about high prices to rest.
The S&P 500, for instance, has gained nearly 6 percent this year. "That's an interesting number: 6 percent just happens to be the average earnings growth rate over the very long term," he said.