US stocks post 4th weekly gain in a row

The gains Friday were led by phone companies and utilities, traditional safe-play stocks that have done far better than the rest of the market over the past year.

Those high-dividend stocks have been appealing to investors hungry for income, particularly with the yields on U.S. government bonds near historic lows of well under 2 percent.

AT&T rose 1.4 percent and Exelon rose 2.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,175.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 53 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,570. The Nasdaq composite increased 26 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,100.

Bond prices barely budged. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.56 percent.