Stocks closed higher as investors focused on positive U.S. economic numbers instead of renewed questions over Greece's solvency as european finance ministers failed to finalize the details of a debt-reduction package for Greece. Also, consumer sentiment in November gained slightly to a reading of 82.7 but wasn’t as strong as initially estimated. Separately, the Conference Board reported it’s likely the U.S. economy will continue to “modestly” expand through early 2013, with the board’s index of leading economic indicators rising 0.2% in October. Initial jobless claims totaled 410,000 last week, impacted by storm conditions in the Northeast, but that was down from a week ago and lower than what economists had predicted. Tech stocks closed with broad gains, led by advances from Salesforce and Groupon, which gained 8.8% and 15.1% respectively on earnings and acquisition report. Hewlett-Packard rose 1.96% after RBC Capital Markets cut its rating on H-P’s stock to sector perform, or neutral, from outperform. Implied volatility little changed on light trading volumes.
