S&P 500 ends at record high; housing, HP help

Reuters
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange May 5, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 closed at a record on Friday, boosted by a better-than-expected reading on the housing market, which gave a lift to homebuilding stocks. Hewlett-Packard's stock, which was the S&P 500's best performer, rallied a day after the personal computer maker reported results and said it may cut up to 16,000 jobs. Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 63.19 points or 0.38 percent, to end unofficially at 16,606.27. The S&P 500 gained 8.04 points or 0.42 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,900.53, a record high. The Nasdaq Composite added 31.47 points or 0.76 percent, to close unofficially at 4,185.81. For the week, the Dow rose 0.7 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 2.3 percent. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)