Dow reaches new high in morning trade

The New York equities markets were up at midday on Friday and looked ready to close the week out with gains as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.4 percent higher to 12,466.99, a gain of 1.3 percent on the week. Earlier in the session, the Dow was as high as 12,486.30, a new high. The Nasdaq Composite had added 0.5 percent so far on the day, to 2,466.12, a gain of 1.2 percent on the week. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent to 1,430.11, 1.4 percent higher this week.

Airlines saw gains during the week. United Air Lines and Continental Airlines both gained share value on the news that United is talking to Continental about a merger. United added 4.8 percent to $45, while Continental gained 7.1 percent to $44.96. Meanwhile, Midwest Airlines was 27.8 percent higher to $11.82 after rejecting an offer from AirTran Holdings.

In the semiconductors sector, Advanced Micro Devices added 6.7 percent to $22.34 after it said that it expected demand to rise by 10 percent next year.

Microsoft added 2.4 percent to $30.12, the first time its share price rose above $30.12 since November 2004. Elsewhere in the software sector, Adobe added 10.3 percent during the week to $42.89 on a fourth-quarter report that was better than had been expected.

Losers included Best Buy, which dropped 4.8 percent to $50.60 on a downgrade from Prudential Securities.

Some securities brokers also saw declines. Lehman Brothers dropped 1.4 percent to $75.98 and Goldman Sachs fell 1.8 percent to $201.32. The sector was mixed, however, with Bear Stearns adding 2.6 percent to $1.63.

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