US stocks rise on data and tech earnings

US stocks rallied on Friday on positive economic data and another good earnings report from the technology sector.

The S&P 500 Index is up 8.09 points, or 0.62 percent, to trade at 1,317.75 at 11:40 a.m. EST. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 72.88 points, or 0.60 percent, to trade at 12,243.44. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.89 percent.

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) surged 3.55 percent on better-than-expected earnings.

Technology stocks continue to perform well as IBM (NYSE:IBM) rose 1.46 percent and Apple (NASDASQ: AAPL) climbed 1.86 percent.

The strength of technology company earnings points to the increasing willingness of businesses (in Oracle’s case) and consumers (in Apple’s case) to spend money.

Economic data was positive as the final reading of fourth quarter 2010 GDP was upwardly revised to 3.1 percent from 2.8 percent.

The ongoing situation in Japan’s nuclear power plants and the protests in the Middle East/North Africa remain unresolved; US-traded crude oil futures are still hovering above $105 per barrel.

However, US equities investors are taking these global uncertainties in stride.