Wall Street edged up, as AT&T and Verizon led telecom stocks higher

S&P and Dow have broken to all-time rS&P and Dow have broken to all-time records for the first time in more than a year despecords for the first time in more than a year amid a second-quarter corporate earnings season that has been better than feared

Wall Street edged up on Friday back toward record levels, as AT&T and Verizon led telecom stocks higher, but gains were limited by weakness in industrials after General Electric's tepid quarterly report.

The major US indexes were poised to notch their fourth straight positive weeks.

The S&P and Dow have broken to all-time records in the past two weeks for the first time in more than a year amid a second-quarter corporate earnings season that has been better than feared.

Also on Friday, a US manufacturing report came in above expectations, building on strong data from earlier in the month.

"Below it all is just an ongoing trend of better economic reports," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "Some of those are earnings reports, but they all line up to the same thing: It looks like growth is quickening."

The Dow Jones industrial average DJI rose 27.81 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 18,545.04, the S&P 500 SPX gained 7.46 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 2,172.63 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 24.85 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 5,098.76.

Nine of 10 sectors were higher, led by utilities SPLRCU and telecoms SPLRCL - defensive, high-dividend-paying groups that have lifted the market this year.

AT&T climbed 1.1 per cent after its results. Verizon rose 1 per cent. The company is the front-runner for Yahoo's core business, Reuters reported. Yahoo was up 1.1 per cent.

Industrials were the lone sector in negative territory, dragged down by a 1.9-per cent decline in GE shares. The US industrial conglomerate reported weak demand for new oil, gas and transportation equipment.

Rival Honeywell fell 2.5 per cent after the diversified manufacturer lowered its full-year sales forecast.

Still, second-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies, which started reporting in earnest this week, are now expected to decline by only 3 per cent, less severe than the 4.5 percent drop estimated at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters.

Results from about 40 per cent of the S&P 500 are due next week.

Investors will also be watching the Federal Reserve's meeting next week for clues about when the US central bank might next seek to raise interest rates.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.90-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.99-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 91 new highs and 18 new lows.