Apple Rally Drives Nasdaq Higher, Dow Closes Unchanged

(RTTNews) - With traders weighing upbeat earnings news against concerns about the situation in Ukraine, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday.

A notable advance by shares of Apple (AAPL) contributed to a strong gain by the tech-heavy Nasdaq, while the Dow ended the day flat.

Shares of Apple (AAPL) jumped 8.2 percent to their best closing level in four months after the iPod and iPhone maker reported second quarter earnings and revenues that came in above analyst estimates.

Apple, which is not a Dow component, also increased its stock repurchase authorization by $30 billion, raised its dividend by 8 percent and announced a 7-for-1 stock split.

Meanwhile, the flat performance by the Dow came as strong gains by Caterpillar (CAT), United Health (UNH) and Home Depot (HD) were offset by notable losses by telecom giants Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).

The Dow ended the session unchanged at 16,501.65, while the Nasdaq climbed 21.37 points or 0.5 percent to 4,148.34 and the S&P 500 edged up 3.22 points 0.2 percent to 1,878.61.