SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook on Wednesday filed to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering. Here are a few highlights of its meteoric rise, several of which were chronicled in David Fincher's seminal Oscar-winning 2010 movie, "The Social Network":

October 28 2003 – Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard psychology sophomore, writes "Facemash," a website that asked users to judge students' attractiveness based on their dorm-directory photos. The authorities — and many students — were not amused.

February 4 2004 – Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook.com, a social network that allows users to create basic profiles including personal information and photos.

February 10 2004 – Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narenya send Zuckerberg a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Zuckerberg of independently developing thefacebook.com while he was hired to work on their social networking project, HarvardConnection.

June 2004 – Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, invests $500,000 in Facebook.

May 26, 2005 – Accel Partners, the venture capital firm headed by investor Jim Breyer, invests $12.7 million in Facebook, valuing the company at roughly $100 million.

October 24, 2007 – Microsoft Corp announces that it purchased a 1.6 percent share of Facebook for $240 million, giving the company a total implied value of around $15 billion.

April 7, 2008 – Facebook settles with the founders of "ConnectU", the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra, for a purported $65 million, according to promotional material later published by ConnectU's lawyers.

May 26, 2009 – Russian investor Yuri Milner's Digital Sky Technologies invests $200 million for a 1.96 percent stake, bringing Facebook's value down to $10 billion.

June 3, 2010 – Zuckerberg sweats profusely as he takes questions about Facebook's privacy policy while onstage at the All Things Digital conference. The episode, which the Twittering classes dubbed a "Nixon Moment," renewed questions about Zuckerberg's viability as the CEO of a company rumored to go public soon.

June 30, 2010 – In one of the more bizarre twists in Facebook's history, New York businessman Paul D. Ceglia files suit against Zuckerberg, claiming he had struck a deal with the founder in 2003 for half of Facebook's revenue and rightfully owned 84 percent of the company. Three successive lawyers withdrew from his legal team within a period of four months in late 2011. The litigation remains ongoing.

October 10, 2010 – Columbia Pictures releases "The Social Network," a film about Facebook's beginning, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin.

January 2, 2011 – Facebook raises $500 million from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company at $50 billion.

January 2011 – Goldman controversially markets as much as $1.5 billion worth of Facebook shares to its private investors, but withdraws the offer from American clients on January 18 following intense media coverage and scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The offer was withdrawn because of accusations that it ran afoul of regulations prohibiting share-placement sponsors from aggressively promoting a deal to potential investors.

November 29, 2011 – Facebook agrees to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived users on what information it would keep private. The incident underscored how user concerns about privacy were spurring top-level government scrutiny of Silicon Valley.

January 25, 2012 – Trading of Facebook shares is halted on the secondary market as rumors of an impending IPO gain steam.

February 1, 2012 – Facebook files its Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise $5 billion in a highly anticipated IPO.

(Reporting by Gerry Shih)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A surge in hiring in the world's largest economy last month drove the Nasdaq to an 11-year high on Friday as optimism grew that the labor market is on a steady path to recovery.

The broad-based gains on solid trading volume also sent the Dow Jones industrial average near a four-year high. The S&P 500 extended its 2012 advance to about 7 percent and was at its highest level in more than six months.

The U.S. economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to nearly a three-year low of 8.3 percent, the government said.

"It is really hard to find something not to like in the jobs report," said Andrew Goldberg, market strategist at JP Morgan Funds in New York. "There is genuine strength in this report with broad-based jobs creation."

While the news was positive, it will take more months of substantial job gains to maintain momentum in a market that has risen more than 25 percent since October lows.

"There is no doubt that no matter how good this report is, this is still a lukewarm jobs recovery," Goldberg said. "There is a long way to go for this economy."

More than 450 stocks across all sectors hit 52-week highs, including Apple (AAPL.O), United Parcel Service (UPS.N), Yum Brands (YUM.N) and MasterCard (MA.N). The number of NYSE stocks making new 52-week highs was at it highest since July.

Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York, said he was having a hard time identifying stocks that did not show signs of being overextended.

"Seventy four percent of stocks are over their own 200-day moving average. Those are bull-market statistics," he said.

Consumer discretionary shares and other stocks tied to an expanding economy led gains. Financial shares (.GSPF) rose 2.7 percent, while industrials (.GSPI) and discretionaries (.GSPD) added 1.7 percent to 2 percent.

In another report signaling strength, the pace of growth in the services sector unexpectedly accelerated in January to its highest level in nearly a year.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 156.82 points, or 1.23 percent, to 12,862.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) rose 19.36 points, or 1.46 percent, to 1,344.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) added 45.98 points, or 1.61 percent, to 2,905.66.

Signs of an improving economy and an absence of bad news from Europe have helped Wall Street stocks rally since last year. But analysts caution that the market is still susceptible to risks such as a flare-up in Europe's debt crisis or geo-political uncertainty in the Middle East that could generate an oil price shock.

For the week the S&P ended up 2.2 percent for its fifth week of gains in a row. The Dow rose 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq also advanced for a fifth straight week, up 3.2 percent for the best week since early December.

The S&P Small Cap 600 (.SML) hit an all time high.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped 243,000, the Labor Department said, as factory jobs grew by the most in a year. The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent – the lowest since February 2009 – from 8.5 percent in December.

"The real stimulant to future economic growth is the 'boost in confidence' this report provides to the roughly 92 percent of the work force which already has a job," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in a research note.

Four stocks rose for each one that fell on both the Nasdaq and NYSE. Volume on the NYSE, Amex, and Nasdaq was 8.03 billion shares, more than the daily 200-day moving average of 7.75 billion.

More than half way through the earnings season, 60 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported have beaten expectations

according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

Gilead Sciences (GILD.O) was one of the top gainers on the S&P 500, up 10.9 percent to $54.69 a day after announcing promising early results from a trial of a hepatitis C drug. It also posted adjusted fourth-quarter profit below consensus.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

(Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's (NDAQ.O) core profit topped analysts' expectations for the fourth quarter, boosted by a rise in revenue from market data and technology, which helped offset a soft trading environment.

Stock market volumes declined from the elevated levels of the prior quarter as volatility eased and investors moved to the sidelines. But the parent of the Nasdaq stock market has diversified its revenues through a number of small "bolt-on" acquisitions over the years, and has reaped the benefits.

Higher demand for its proprietary data services helped drive the company's market data revenue up 10 percent, while market technology revenue rose 4 percent from a year earlier due to recently delivered projects.

Transaction fees, meanwhile, slipped 1 percent from a year earlier and were down 13 percent from the prior quarter.

Nasdaq, which runs U.S. and Nordic markets, earned $82 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter, down from $137 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items associated with debt refinancing and merger and strategic initiatives, it earned 63 cents a share, compared to 55 cents in the year-prior quarter.

Analysts on average expected the New York-based company to earn 61 cents per share, excluding items.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $422 million, versus expectations of $417.16 million.

Nasdaq's shares were up 1.09 percent at $25.03 on Wednesday around midday.

ANOTHER DEAL FAILS, BUT M&A NOT DEAD

Nasdaq's results were largely overshadowed by a ruling a couple of hours earlier by EU antitrust regulators blocking the merger of exchange operators Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) and NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) on the grounds it would have lead to a near monopoly on the European futures market.

The sector has seen three other large deals fail this past year, including one in which the U.S. Department of Justice prevented Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N) from buying NYSE Euronext.

Nasdaq Chief Executive Bob Greifeld said he was empathetic to what the management teams at both Deutsche Boerse and NYSE were going through, but that he does not believe the ruling will preclude other large exchange deals from happening.

"Our rejection by the DOJ and today's rejection by the EU Competition Committee certainly sends a clear message that a transaction that results in over 90 percent market share in a pre-defined market is highly suspect," he said on a call with analysts.

"But there is a compelling industrial logic of combining operations and technology of non-overlapping exchanges, and that will happen in the future."

Morningstar analyst Michael Wong said that Nasdaq itself would be a prime acquisition target.

"It would give instant diversification into U.S. equities, U.S. options, European equities, and European derivatives, listings and technology, and everything else that's in the Nasdaq OMX package," he said.

ORGANIC GROWTH IN FOCUS, DIVIDEND EYED

Greifeld said Nasdaq would focus on organic growth, with some smaller 'bolt-on' acquisitions, while returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks.

He said a dividend was a matter of "when, not if," and that it could come after the share buyback program is complete later this year.

While the quarter's results topped expectations, one item that caught some analysts off guard was Nasdaq's 2012 expense outlook of $955 million to $985 million.

"While initial guidance might prove to be conservative, it disappoints relative to our $940 million forecast and the $960 million Street consensus," UBS analyst Alex Kramm said in a note to clients.

On the listings front, Nasdaq said its initial public offering pipeline is the largest it has been in more than 10 years.

For the fourth quarter, listing fees were up 2 percent as Nasdaq added 56 new listings and 16 initial public offerings, including high-profile listings like Groupon and Zynga.

Nasdaq also said companies representing over $80 billion in market capitalization, including Texas Instruments, Viacom, and Wendy's, switched their listings to Nasdaq from other exchanges.

(This version corrects penultimate paragraph to Zynga instead of Zegna)

(Reporting By John McCrank in New York; Editing by Derek Caney, Dave Zimmerman and Gunna Dickson)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A surge in hiring in the world's largest economy last month drove U.S. stocks higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq hitting an 11-year high as optimism grew that the labor market is on a steady path to recovery.

The broad-based gains on solid trading volume also sent the Dow Jones industrial near a four-year high. The S&P 500 extended its 2012 advance to about 7 percent.

The U.S. economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to nearly a three-year low of 8.3 percent, the government said.

"It was just another report that shows that the economy is healing," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York. "Businesses that are in motion are doing pretty well."

More than 450 stocks across all sectors hit 52-week highs, including Apple (AAPL.O), United Parcel Service (UPS.N), Yum Brands (YUM.N) and MasterCard (MA.N). The number of NYSE stocks making new 52-week highs was at its highest since July.

Kaufman said he was having a hard time identifying stocks that did not show signs of being overextended. "Seventy four percent of stocks are over their own 200-day moving average. Those are bull-market statistics," he said.

Consumer discretionary shares and other stocks tied to an expanding economy led gains. Financial shares (.GSPF) rose 2.3 percent, while industrials (.GSPI) and discretionaries (.GSPD) added 1.7 percent to 1.8 percent.

In another report signaling strength, the pace of growth in the services sector unexpectedly accelerated in January to its highest level in nearly a year.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 148.08 points, or 1.17 percent, to 12,853.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) rose 18.32 points, or 1.38 percent, to 1,343.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) added 46.92 points, or 1.64 percent, to 2,906.60.

Signs of an improving economy and an absence of bad news from Europe have helped Wall Street stocks rally since last year.

So far this week the S&P is up 2 percent and on track for its fifth week of gains in a row. The Dow has risen 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq, also set for a fifth straight winning week, is up 3 percent and heading for the best week since early December.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped 243,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, as factory jobs grew by the most in a year. The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent – the lowest since February 2009 – from 8.5 percent in December.

Four stocks rose for each one that fell on both the Nasdaq and NYSE. Volume on the NYSE, Amex, and Nasdaq was 5.41 billion shares, on course to exceed the daily 200-day moving average of 7.75 billion in a sign of greater participation than on recent days.

More than half way through the earnings season, 60 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported have beaten expectations

according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

Gilead Sciences (GILD.O) was one of the top gainers on the S&P 500, up 11.3 percent to $54.88 a day after announcing promising early results from a trial of a hepatitis C drug. It also posted adjusted fourth-quarter profit below consensus.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Some recent high-profile stock offerings on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq:

NYSE:

Pandora Media, $234 million, June 15.

LinkedIn Corp., $353 million, May 19.

HCA Holdings Inc., $4.3 billion, March 10.

Kinder Morgan, $3.3 billion, Feb. 11.

Nielsen Holdings, $1.9 billion, Jan. 26.

Nasdaq:

Zynga Inc., $1 billion, Dec. 16.

Jive Software, Inc., $161 million, Dec. 13.

Groupon, Inc., $700 million, Nov. 4.

Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., $422 million, July 27.

Yandex NV, $1.3 billion, May 24.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dow and S&P 500 index futures edged lower on Wednesday as the market continues to show signs of fatigue this week after a strong run from late last year, but the Nasdaq rose on forecast-beating results from Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

Apple's results on Tuesday were a standout in what has otherwise been a fairly lackluster earnings season. So far 58 percent of companies have beat forecasts while at this stage in the third quarter earnings season, 70 percent had beat forecasts.

Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said a still uncertain outlook for global growth and a renewed standoff in negotiations to solve Greece's debt crisis was making the market pause after rallying over 20 percent from its October lows.

"We have got an awful long way to go in dealing with the debt and budget problems (in Europe) and the structural problems … will take years to work out," he said.

The euro fell from session highs against the dollar and a one-month high versus the yen as worries the European Central Bank would need to take losses on its Greek bond holdings outweighed a strong German business sentiment survey.

S&P 500 futures fell 3 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures were off 37 points, and Nasdaq futures rose 18 points.

Apple was up 8.5 percent to $456.10 in pre-market trading after its quarterly results blew past Wall Street's expectations as U.S. consumers snapped up near-unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares up into record territory

Countering Apple there was more weakness in industrial names. Shares of Corning Inc (GLW.N) fell 8 percent to $13.45 as manufacturers cut back on the production of big-screen televisions that use the company's glass.

"Up until now there have been pockets of weakness in a handful of companies that have sparked concern among investors," said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lek Securities in New York.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, which is holding a two-day policy meeting that ends on Wednesday, looks set to keep monetary policy on hold even as it releases forecasts expected to show interest rates will be near zero for at least two more years.

Meanwhile late on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union speech before the November election to paint himself as the champion of the middle class, by demanding higher taxes for millionaires and tight reins on Wall Street.

Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) is offering $5.7 billion in cash to buy U.S. gene sequencing company Illumina Inc (ILMN.O) in a hostile takeover bid that marks a major play by the Swiss drugmaker into the gene technology field. Illumina rose 37.5 percent to $51.82 in pre-market trade.

Planemaker Boeing Co (BA.N) on Wednesday said its quarterly profit rose on stronger commercial airplane deliveries. The shares fell 1.7 percent to $74.10 in premarket trading after running up more than 20 percent since late November.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer Textron Inc (TXT.N) reported a quarterly loss after taking a hefty charge to write down the value of loans on golf courses — a hangover from the financial crisis. Its shares were up 10 percent to $23.70 before the open [ID:nL2E8COAVM]

European shares (.FTEU3) fell 0.7 percent on Wednesday, weighed by the tech sector after a sharp post-results decline for mobile telecoms network gear maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST).

(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks cut losses and the Nasdaq turned positive on Tuesday as equities continued to show resilience after a five-day rally, but investors were cautious as talks to resolve Greece's debt crisis faltered.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 34.47 points, or 0.27 percent, to 12,674.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) dropped 3.78 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,312.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 1.32 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,785.49.

(Reporting By Edward krudy; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

WASHINGTON – The stock market has had an impressive January. The staid companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average have gained 4 percent in three weeks, and the broader market has done even better.

But the Nasdaq composite — a collection of technology stocks whose dot-com heyday was more than a decade ago — has left them both in the dust.

That’s no surprise when you consider tech stocks took a licking last year. Tech companies tend to carry more risk — a problem for the Nasdaq during last year’s market gyrations. As investors regain confidence in the economy, riskier plays are doing well.

But experts say the Nasdaq’s gains reflect long-term currents that could lift tech stocks through 2012 and beyond. Many companies put off replacing worn-out technology during the recession. To compete and survive, they need to invest in tech.

There’s also a growing global market for technology as more nations try to reduce labor costs by automating everything from factories to cash registers.

And the biggest tech companies face less competition these days when they try to acquire smaller companies. Many of their mid-sized rivals for those deals were weeded out after the dot-com bust and the financial crisis.

In the market for mergers and acquisitions, established players like IBM and Oracle can be picky about buying only those companies that will increase their earnings — and probably their stock prices.

In other words, it’s not all about Microsoft-style titans and trendy social media companies like LinkedIn and Zynga. The Nasdaq contains more than 3,000 companies, many of them relative startups compared with the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

For the year — just 13 trading days old — the Nasdaq composite is up 7 percent, compared with 4.6 percent for the S&P 500 and 4.1 percent for the Dow.

“It looks like it’s going to be their year, or at least their month,” says Michael Vogelzang, chief investment officer at Boston Advisors LLC.

The Nasdaq sank 1.8 percent last year, while the Dow rose 5.5 percent and the S&P was flat. That left tech stocks relatively cheap, giving them more space to rise as the broader market rallied. Oracle is up 11.9 percent this year, Microsoft 14.5 percent.

Vogelzang and others say the tech rally has further to go.

“If you want to make your company more productive, you have to turn to the world of technology for that,” says Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst with Fort Pitt Capital Group.

She expects the S&P 500′s tech sector to outperform the broader market because of strong demand from U.S. companies, developing nations such as China and even cash-strapped European governments. As China’s banking system exploded to serve a growing middle class, banks there spent big on IBM technology, she noted.

“Nobody questions whether they need the latest and greatest technology anymore. They know they need to keep up their technology spending,” says Eric Gebaide, managing director of Innovation Advisors, a tech-focused investment bank and strategic advisory firm.

Gebaide and others mentioned many companies’ efforts to move their computing and data storage off-site — trends known as “cloud computing” and “virtualization.” Long-distance computing is cheaper, but it requires technology.

But why are tech stocks rallying now? The cloud computing transition has been under way for years, and spending by companies has driven much of the U.S. recovery since the economy emerged from recession in June 2009.

It’s all about the investment cycle, says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer with Harris Private Bank. He says investors are finally willing to “flex their speculative muscles in a market that isn’t falling apart in the way they feared last year.”

Last year, some of the best-performing stocks were consumer staples and utilities — lower-risk industries where demand is consistent even the economy is slow. This year, utilities in the S&P are down 3.7 percent, while tech companies are up 6 percent.

The move out of so-called defensive stocks, the ones you want to own in a slow economy, is a sign that investors are willing to embrace risk again.

“You’re getting this big market rotation,” Vogelzang says. “People made money last year in the boring, stable industries, and they’re saying, `Hey, I better get on this economy train while I can.’”

Tech companies learned hard lessons from the dot-com bust of the early 2000s and the 2008 financial crisis, says Gebaide of Innovation Advisors. They hold more cash than most types of companies and carry less debt. That leaves them less vulnerable to bankruptcy or a loss of investor confidence.

Given its twice-stung discipline, tech is positioned to drive the economy — “perhaps the best it has been as a sector in the past 20 years,” Gebaide says.

The biggest threat to the industry, Gebaide says, is a slowdown in the early investment that helps startups grow into viable companies. Those early dollars used to offer massive returns to savvy investors when a good pick went public.

Today, the upside for venture capitalists is limited because far fewer companies are going public in big stock offerings. The bar is much higher after dot-com era debacles like Pets.com. Before underwriting a deal or buying chunks of stock, banks and investors want to see millions in annual revenue and established customer bases. It’s tough for younger tech companies to meet those standards.

Peter Falvey, managing director of Morgan Keegan Technology Group, says there’s plenty of capital, entrepreneurship and good ideas to keep companies’ bottom lines — and stock prices — rising.

Falvey’s group specializes in tech mergers and acquisitions — the kinds of deals that allow IBM or Oracle to bring a small competitor’s product to a wider audience and add to their own earnings. Last year was the best for M&A in his group’s 11-year history, and this year’s deal pipeline already is stronger than last year’s was at this time, he says.

A company like IBM “has huge amounts of capital and a global customer base, plus complete hardware-software services,” Falvey says. “Once you put a small company into that machine, IBM can do really well with it.”

The industry’s earlier downturns also helped big companies by weeding out smaller players. The number of publicly traded tech companies has decreased by a third since 2000, Gebaide says. Now the big dogs can pick and choose more carefully, acquiring only businesses that are almost certain to increase their profits.

To be sure, high-tech companies are higher-risk investments, and they could lose value quickly if the market tanks because of a debt catastrophe in Europe or something unforeseen.

“People love tech until we get an economic shock, or negative economic statistics start to come out,” Vogelzang says. “Then all of a sudden, people will say, `Whoa, I need to go buy some utilities again.”

But investors should take tech’s success at this stage as a promising sign, says Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist with Schaeffer’s Investment Research. He says higher-risk bets like tech stocks tend to rise as the market enters a phase of long-term growth.

Housing, tech and small-company stocks all have risen faster than broad indexes since October, Detrick says. Those sectors are sensitive to improving economic data, he says.

“When you start to see tech taking charge, that’s definitely a potential step in the right direction for future gains, potentially for the whole year,” Detrick says. “Those are the sectors you want to see lead a bull market.”

___

Follow Daniel Wagner at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Thursday as stronger-than-expected economic data lifted sentiment in a lightly traded session, although weakness in Amazon kept a lid on Nasdaq gains.

The S&P 500 was again slightly higher for the year a day after concerns about Europe's debt crisis sparked a selloff that took the index into negative territory for 2011. While Italy's bond yields remaining at high levels after an auction, they were overshadowed by the positive domestic data.

Pending sales of existing homes surged to a 1-1/2 year high in November, offering more signs of a tentative housing recovery. The Dow Jones Home Construction index (.DJUSHB) rose 3.3 percent, while Toll Brothers Inc (TOL.N) gained 2.8 percent to $20.40.

In addition, the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago's index of Midwest business activity was higher than expected in December, though it edged lower from the previous month.

Italian yields fell from recent record highs at a short-term debt auction, but yields for 10-year paper remained near 7 percent, a level near where other euro zone governments were forced to seek bailouts.

"The improvement in yields wasn't as much as we'd like, but it is modestly reassuring," said Brian Lazorishak, portfolio manager at Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Also, the data continues to be steps in the right direction, showing some signs of healing in the economy."

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) jumped 99.94 points, or 0.82 percent, at 12,251.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 10.13 points, or 0.81 percent, at 1,259.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) advanced 13.51 points, or 0.52 percent, at 2,603.49.

Initial jobless claims rose more than expected, giving a mixed picture on the labor market.

Recent economic data, including reports on the housing market, have been largely positive, contributing to gains over the past month and the view that economic growth is picking up steam.

For the year, the S&P is flat, while the Nasdaq is down 1.9 percent. The Dow is up 5.7 percent.

Gains in the Nasdaq were limited by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), which fell 1.9 percent to $170.63. Goldman Sachs late Wednesday suggested the online retailer's sales growth in the current holiday quarter could miss Wall Street expectations.

Shares of Mosaic Co (MOS.N) fell 1 percent to $49.78 a day after the fertilizer producer said it will cut production of phosphate, a key nutrient used for crop production, because prices have fallen to unsustainable levels.

Standard & Poor's placed Sears Holdings Corp's (SHLD.O) credit rating on review for a possible downgrade, saying the retailer's plan to close at least 100 stores may not do much to improve its performance. The stock rose 0.8 percent to $33.51.

(Reporting By Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks were lower, led by the Nasdaq, after midday on Friday, with S&P 500 facing a test of technical support.

The Dow Jones industrial average was off 5 points, or 0.04 percent, at 11,760. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 3 points, or 0.32 percent, at 1,212. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 17 points, or 0.69 percent, at 2,570.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)