AlHijjah 20, 1434, Oct 25, 2013, SPA -- U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, as several well-known tech stocks surged after reporting better-than-expected third quarter results. In U.S. economic news, investors remained convinced that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will delay winding back its massive bond-buying program. The Fed has a policy meeting next week and is widely expected to say it will continue buying $85 billion in bonds and mortgage-backed securities a month. The University of Michigan's October reading on consumer confidence fell far below expectations and was also below September's levels. In corporate news, Amazon posted a loss, but sales were much better than forecasts. Amazon's shares soared nearly 10 percent. Microsoft easily topped estimates for sales and profits. Those results helped push its stock up nearly 6 percent. Even Zynga, the troubled online video game company, surprised Wall Street by reporting losses that were slimmer than expected, which sent shares up nearly 6 percent. UPS is confident that consumers will be shopping in force over the holidays. The shipping giant predicted a robust holiday season, which sent shares up more than 1 percent. The company also reported quarterly income that exceeded forecasts. Twitter revealed late Thursday that it plans to raise upwards of $1.4 billion in its initial public offering, selling 70 million shares at between $17 and $20 per share. At the high end of that range, Twitter would be worth nearly $11 billion. The dollar gained ground against the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for December delivery rose 74 cents to $97.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures climbed $2.20 to $1,352.50 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 61.07, or 0.39 percent, to 15,570.28. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 7.7, or 0.44 percent, to 1,759.77. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 14.40, or 0.37 percent, to 3,943.36.
