Wall Street posts modest gains with Dow closing at record high

U.S. stocks closed slightly higher in an uneventful session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting an all-time closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 32.37 points, or 0.20 percent, to 16,583.34, eclipsing its previous record close of 16, 580.84 points set on April 30, but still shy of its intraday high of 16,631.63 points seen on April 4. The broader S&P 500 increased 2.85 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,878.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 20.37 points, or 0.50 percent, to 4,071.87. "I think what you've seen today is kind of just an exile so to be speaking in the market, people are just relaxing and taking it easy. And so you've seen a little bit minor volatility, a bit of very tight range," Warren Meyers, director at Illustro Trading, told Xinhua Friday. Following Thursday's mixed session, the market opened mildly lower with light economic calendar and no notable names releasing their earnings reports in the day. On the economic front, wholesale stockpiles rose 1.1 percent to 525.2 billion U.S. dollars in March, after a 0.7 percent gain in February, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The increase topped analysts' expectations. Ralph Lauren shares fell 2.09 percent to 148.81 dollars after the high-end retailer early Friday released its lower-than- expected revenue growth for the current quarter. Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies have released first-quarter earnings, among which 69 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations and 53 percent have reported revenue above forecast. "Today has been kind of actually a very quiet market. There have been a lot of things that have been moving the market over the last few weeks. You've had Janet Yellen speaking in the last two days which I think moved the market and gave a little positive tone," Meyers said. For the week, the Dow ended in modestly positive territory, up 0.4 percent. While the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished week with losses, down 0.1 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. The CBOE Volatility Index, a gauge of fear in the market, slipped 3.80 percent to 12.92. In other markets, oil prices dropped Friday on high U.S. crude stockpiles. Light, sweet crude for June delivery moved down 27 cents to settle at 99.99 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery lost 15 cents to close at 107.89 dollars a barrel. Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell for a fourth session in a row on a strong dollar Friday, with the most active gold contract for June delivery down 0.1 dollar, or 0.01 percent, to settle at 1,287.6 dollars per ounce. The U.S. dollar rallied against major currencies Friday, and it continued rising against the euro on speculations of further European Central Bank easing measures. In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.3747 dollars from 1.3853 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.6843 dollars from 1.6943 dollars.