Trading was quiet ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.
Homebuilder stocks rose after the government reported that sales of new homes increased last month. Investors also bid up shares in GameStop and Hewlett-Packard after the companies reported positive earnings.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained six points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,898 as of noon Eastern Time. That’s one point above the index’s previous all-time high close 10 days ago.
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