The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.76 to close at 5,636.64.
Advancers led decliners by about 11 to 8 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,329 up, 968 down and 828 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 329.37 million shares, vs. 364.82 million in the previous session. The NYSE's index rose 0.71 to 348.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 1.42 to 650.61. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.44 to 1,101.23. The American Stock Exchange index was 1.03 higher to 569.35.
Traders were breathing a sigh of relief after weeks of high anxiety. "This is a rare quiet Friday," said Phil Erlanger, who runs the stock research firm in Acton, Mass. Erlanger said he took the opportunity to assess the past several weeks.
"The thing that I see," he said, "is that the stock market had plenty of opportunity to really have that 10-to-15 percent correction that everybody was looking for, and it just doesn't do it. You've got rising interest rates, the tech stocks . . . getting roiled, and yet the stock market just holds together."
The 30-year Treasury bond was down 5/16 point and yielding 6.65 percent after giving up early gains. The stock market, however, was close to somnolent.
"We had such a powerful move Monday" when the Dow index rose 98 points, added Larry Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities. "There was this sense of, 'well, what do you do for an encore?' The rest of the week was spent consolidating those gains."