April 10, 2015: Markets opened higher on Friday after GE announced a plan to dump real estate assets held by GE Capital and initiate a share buyback of $50 billion. Equity markets generally rode GE to share price gains today. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded up 0.54% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 0.49%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.37%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Thursday was General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) which traded up 11.19% at $28.61. The stock’s 52-week range is $23.41 to $28.68, and the high was set late Friday afternoon. Trading volume was more than 8-times higher than the daily average of around 37 million shares. The conglomerate’s restructuring and share buyback absolutely lifted the entire DJIA today.

Caterpillar Inc.(NYSE: CAT) traded up 2.37% at $82.59. The stock’s 52-week range is $78.19 to $111.46. Trading volume was about 15% below the daily average of around 6.3 million shares. The company said today that it has formed a new Analytics and Innovation division to “foster a culture of innovation” at the heavy equipment maker.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) traded higher by 2.06% at $31.89. The stock’s 52-week range is $25.74 to $37.90. Trading volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 33.4 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but did break off talks about acquiring Altera yesterday.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) traded up 1.16% at $27.95. The stock’s 52-week range is $27.51 to $35.45. Trading volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 30 million shares. The said today that it will demonstrate broadcast video production at next week’s NAB show.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 24 are set to close higher today and 6 are on track to close lower.

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