Stocks gained ground, with the Dow and S&P 500 closing at fresh five-year highs amid mostly strong earnings reports. Earlier in the day, stocks wavered as existing home sales surprisingly declined in December to an annual rate of 4.94 million from the previous month, meanwhile, overall existing home sales in 2012 were the highest for the U.S. real estate market in five years. Among individual stock movers, Verizon gained 0.9% after its chief financial officer said the co. might be able full-year forecast that came in below estimates. Tech stocks mostly closed higher with Research In Motion gaining 13% after CEO Thorsten Heins reiterated to a German newspaper that the co. is continuing with a strategic review of all of its business operations. Dell rose 2% as the latest rumor had Microsoft chipping in to help finance a private-equity buyout of the PC maker. Apple rose 0.95% after Verizon said it activated 6.2 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of 2012, with almost half of the activations being Apple’s iPhone 5. In the evening trade Google rose 5% after the co. reported earnings of $10.65 a share, quarterly revenue minus traffic acquisition costs of $11.34 billion, below the consensus estimate of $12.34 billion, but advertising revenue jumped more than 20%. IBM gained 4.2% as the co.’s quarterly earnings were bolstered by stronger software sales and margins. House Republicans have set a vote for Wednesday on raising the U.S. debt limit through the middle of May. Also, Apple reports fiscal first-quarter results, facing increased production costs and competition from Samsung Electronics.
