The Dow closed up 78.5 points at 7,067.46, topping the record close Thursday that took the blue-chip index past 7,000 for the first time.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 13-to-9 margin on the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE volume totaled 474.07 million shares vs. 480.14 million yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list rose 4.18 to 812.66, and the NYSE's composite index rose 3.59 to 427.07. The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.23 to 1,365.96, and the American Stock Exchange index rose 3.95 to 598.10.
"We are seeing selected stocks that are extremely strong and that's behind much of this late-day rally," said Anthony O'Bryan, a market analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.
Stocks seesawed for most of the day as cautious investors tried to determine whether the market would continue its upward drive. The Dow jumped over 8 percent already this year and it took only four months for the blue-chip index to go from 6,000 to 7,000.
Many investors also stayed on the sidelines ahead of tomorrow's consumer price index and trade balance reports that could give the stocks some short-term direction.
But by late afternoon, the buyers returned to the the market and sent stock prices to their highest levels of the day.