The Dow and S&P 500 rose on Friday as General Electric Co's earnings bolstered views the recovery was gaining traction and helped set the market back on its up trend after two days of declines.

But the Nasdaq slipped, as shares of Google pared early gains and turned negative. Late Thursday, the world's No. 1 search engine reported earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations.

Shares of General Electric, considered a bellwether for the economy and corporate America, rose 6.6 percent to $19.65 and hit their highest level since April 30. The stock, the top positive in the Dow, also scored its biggest daily percentage jump since May 10.

GE reported stronger-than-expected earnings, helped by the recovery of its finance arm and a rise in revenue at its industrial units, including a sharp pickup in sales of locomotives.

That's just another sign of an improving economic situation, and improving corporate profits in America, as well as worldwide, said Bryant Evans, investment advisor and portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management, in Champaign, Illinois.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 31.90 points, or 0.27 percent, at 11,854.70. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 3.64 points, or 0.28 percent, at 1,283.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 3.59 points, or 0.13 percent, at 2,700.70.

Earlier, the Dow climbed to a fresh 52-week high at 11,905.48.

The S&P 500 is up 9 percent since the start of December, but the index lost more than 1 percent over the past two days. Many technical and other analysts see the up trend continuing through at least the first half of the year, but some have forecast a pullback for the near term.

Google Inc shares were off 0.1 percent at $625.90.

[ID:nN20114431] Besides its results, the company also had announced a shakeup in its executive suite. Earlier, Google rose to an intraday high of $641.73.

The action in Google shares is not so much Google earnings, but a factor of the market itself, said Robert Francello, head of equity trading for Apex Capital in San Francisco.

We had such a massive run in the end of December and early this month, we might be seeing selling into good earnings, he said. The long, fast money (is) paring gains and preparing themselves for some type of consolidation short term.

Investors are also contending with options expiration, with January options on individual stocks set to expire after the close. The expiry sometimes adds to market volatility.

Tempering some of the earnings optimism were results from Bank of America Corp , the latest bank to disappoint investors.

Bank of America shares fell 1.5 percent to $14.32 after the largest U.S. bank by assets reported a second straight quarterly loss, driven by a $2 billion write-down in its mortgage business.

The results follow disappointing results earlier this week from Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo , was up 1.3 percent, however.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch Additional reporting by Doris Frankel Editing by Jan Paschal )

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