CLOSING BELL

Dow 10564.38  +11.86, Nasdaq 2340.68  +8.47, S&P 1140.45  +1.95 

Stocks managed to post modest gains today after a soft start but closed off the day’s highs.  The lack of any major news releases again left many traders on the sidelines.

A stronger dollar has been a hurdle for stocks to push higher.  The dollar gained just +0.1% this today, but that was only after it fell from higher levels.  The dollar got support today as the Euro and British pound were pressured by news that analysts at Fitch kept a Negative outlook in place for Portugal's AA rating and that Britain's plan to halve its deficit in four years was determined to be too slow.

There was little corporate news today, but Cisco (CSCO) 26.13 0.00, 0.00% unveiled a new router that the company said would allow someone to download the entire library of Congress in one second, allow every Chinese citizen to make a call at the same time or allow users to download every movie ever made in four minutes.

Northrop Grumman (NOC) 64.00 -0.16, -0.25%announced in-line guidance for fiscal 2010, but the biggest news was the company's decision to take itself out of contention for a contract to build next generation refueling planes. 

Apple (AAPL) 223.02 +3.94, +1.80% hit another new 52 week high today of 225.00 but pulled back some at the close.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom +1.2%, Industrials +0.8%, Tech +0.4%, Financials +0.3%, Energy +0.1%

Declining Sectors: Materials -0.5%, Utilities -0.3%, Consumer Staples -0.2%, Health Care -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%