Dow Sets New Standard

Updated from 4:16 p.m. EST

The market was stronger again Friday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached another benchmark as traders cheered a benign reading on inflation at the consumer level.

After the Labor Department said the overall CPI and the core rate for November were unchanged from the prior month, the Dow ran up 28.76 points, or 0.23%, to 12,445.52, its best-ever finish. Earlier, the index touched a record intraday high of 12,486.30.

The S&P 500 gained 1.60 points, or 0.11%, to 1427.09, and the Nasdaq Composite tacked on 3.35 points, or 0.14%, to 2457.20.

The upswing punctuated a week in which the Dow added 138 points, or 1.1%, its second straight weekly gain. The S&P 500 was higher by 17 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq collected 20 points, or 0.8%, over the five sessions.

By subgroup, banking stocks were the best performers of the session. The Philadelphia/KBW Bank Sector Index rose 0.6%. On the other hand, metal stocks were crushed as both silver and gold futures fell hard. The Amex Gold Bugs Index slipped 1.5% and the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index lost 1.4%.

Volume was heavy, with more than 3.21 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners outpaced advancers by a 6-to-5 margin. The Nasdaq traded roughly 2.37 billion shares, and losers edged winners 8 to 7.

"Overall, we had decent economic numbers that had traders talking about a soft landing," said Jay Suskind, head of institutional equity trading with Ryan Beck & Co. "Going into the last two weeks of the year, we'll get lighter volumes and people leaving for vacation. The bias should be to the upside and we should end the year near these highs, something we can deal with in January."

Invigorating the bulls was a government report on inflation. Overall, consumer prices were expected to have risen 0.2% last month instead of coming in flat with October. The core consumer price index was also supposed to show that excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.2%.