Authors: Carmen Cox
Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Strong earnings reports from IBM and others helped tech shares lead the markets Thursday to a third straight winning session.
The Dow closed up 34.66 points to close at 12,943 Thursday, while the Nasdaq added 23 points and the S&P 500 gained four. Ending the session at 1,375, it was the S&P's highest close since May.
While tech companies like IBM, eBay and Google posted earnings increases, it was not all good news for Microsoft. The software giant reported a net loss of $492 million -- its first quarterly loss as a public company in 26 years.
Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims were up substantially from the week before. The Labor Department reported 386,000 Americans filed jobless claims last week, more than analysts initially expected.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
