U.S. stocks close higher, extending gains for the week

Wall Street's "Santa Claus" rally kept delivering gifts a day after Christmas.

The Dow Jones industrial average, Standard & Poor's 500 index, and Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks closed at all-time highs Friday.

The modest pickup in stocks, which gave the Dow its seventh consecutive gain, came on a day of relatively light trading following the holiday break for U.S. markets. Utilities stocks were among the biggest gainers.

The Dow gained 23.50 points to close at 18,053.71. That's up 0.13 percent from its previous record high Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 6.89 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,088.77. That's up 0.3 percent from the S&P 500's most-recent all-time high recorded on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq composite rose 33.39 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,806.86. The last time the index was higher was March 28, 2000, during the heady days of the dot-com bubble.

The Russell 2000 climbed 8.42 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,215.21. That's an increase of 0.5 percent from the Russell's previous all-time high March 4.

U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 2.25 percent.

The stock market has been mostly climbing since hitting a recent low of 17,069 on Dec. 16 on worries about plunging oil prices and a sharp drop in Russia's currency.

Major European markets were closed for the holiday. Markets in Asia posted slight gains.

Eight of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 index rose, led by utilities stocks. The sector is up 27.9 percent this year. Energy posted the biggest decline, deepening its slide this year to 9 percent.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.11 to close at $54.73 a barrel. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 79 cents to close at $59.45 a barrel in London.

Most metals prices rose. Gold gained $21.80 to $1,195.30 an ounce. Silver rose 44 cents to $16.15 an ounce, and copper fell four cents to $2.81 an ounce.