By Angela Moon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was near a four-year high on Friday and heading for a sixth straight week of gains. A drop in Wall Street's "fear gauge" and gains across all sectors suggested stocks have room to move higher.
The Nasdaq rose as Apple shares reached an all-time high.
The S&P 500 made a solid move above the closely watched 1,400 level in the last session, posting its biggest gain in two weeks. The index hovered near 1,419, its highest since May 2008.
"From a sentiment point of view, the market has little to inhibit it from proceeding higher," said Ralph Edwards, director of derivatives strategy at ITG in New York.
"The best rallies are, of course, the broadest, so it makes sense to view, in real-time, the stocks that are propelling the index so as to make sure that the advance is not just being carried on the shoulders of one sector. Here, the news is also good."
Edwards noted that 47 S&P 500 stocks in all industry groups except for utilities have recently hit a 52-week high, among them Home Depot Inc
The CBOE VIX volatility index <.VIX>, seen as a measure of investors concern on Wall Street, hit a 5-year low on Friday, down 5.7 percent to 13.47 in a sign that investors are less concerned about risk than they have been.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 6.69 points, or 0.05 percent, at 13,256.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 0.36 point, or 0.03 percent, at 1,415.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 7.28 points, or 0.24 percent, at 3,069.67.
With few news headlines and light participation during summer holidays, traders are increasingly taking their cues from market technicals. The S&P 500 needs to close above 1,419.04, the index's April high to make a new four-year high.
Shares in Apple Inc
But Facebook shares continued to slide after the expiration of a lockup period on some of the company's stock following its initial public offering. The shares fell as much as 4.3 percent to a record low of $19.01.
Groupon Inc
The S&P 500 has risen 2.6 percent in August and nearly 11 percent since a year low in June as traders eye some encouraging U.S. jobs data and highly anticipated policy meetings at the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve in September.
The economic data on Wednesday was mixed, leaving investors wondering if the recovery was real.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for August rose to its highest since May to 73.6, buoyed by sales at retailers and low mortgage rates.
Separately, the Conference Board said its leading economic index climbed 0.4 percent, reversing a 0.4 percent decline in June and pointing to slow growth through the end of 2012.
"It's interesting because we've had this mixed bag from the economic data. Today's is a good step and yesterday was a little disappointing, with the housing data, so we are all just kind of wondering, is this recovery real?" said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist, Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Trading volume, which has been meager over the past several sessions during a seasonally slow period, could be even lighter heading into the weekend. This week has seen the lowest and second lowest full-day trading volumes of the year.
The low was hit on Monday with just 4.54 billion shares on the Nasdaq, the NYSE and the Amex, about two thirds of the daily average this year.
The S&P rallied for six days through August 10, boosted by the anticipation of more actions from central banks in the United States and euro zone.
The S&P 500 rose to a four-month peak on Thursday after comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel reinforced investor expectations for action to tackle the euro zone debt crisis.
Gap
Marvell Technology Group Ltd
(Reporting By Angela Moon)
