Wall St. closes sharply higher, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended sharply higher on Thursday, with a rally in technology stocks leading the Nasdaq to a 15-year high, helping to offset the impact of some tepid economic data.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 106.9 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,969.04, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 19.69 points, or 0.95 percent, to 2,088.22 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 56.43 points, or 1.18 percent, to 4,857.61.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Nick Zieminski)