Awwal 14, 1432 H/Feb 17, 2011, SPA -- U.S. stocks finished higher Wednesday, reaching their highest level in more than two years, as investors received solid reports on corporate profits. In U.S. economic news, a government report showed the number of housing starts rose more than expected in January, while permits for new construction were weaker than forecast. Housing starts rose 14 percent to an annual rate of 596,000 units last month, while building permits fell 10 percent to annual rate of 562,000 in January. In a separate report, the government's Producer Price Index, a measure of wholesale inflation, rose 0.8 percent in January. The increase was slightly larger than expected. Meanwhile, reports from the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve showed that policymakers anticipate a bigger increase in economic growth for 2011 than they thought a few months ago. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for March delivery rose 67 cents to $84.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following reports that Iran was moving warships through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria. Gold futures rose $1 to $1,375.10 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61.53, or 0.5 percent, to 12,288.17, with J.P. Morgan Chase and Hewlett Packard leading the advance. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 8.31, or 0.6 percent, to 1,336.32. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 21.21, or 0.8 percent, to 2,825.56, led by a 12 percent jump in shares of Dell, which delivered a strong fourth-quarter profit.
