US STOCKS-Wall St ends up despite Middle East tensions as tech-related shares gain

(Updates to close)
* Energy index rises as crude climbs
* Alphabet jumps on bullish brokerage recommendation
* Indexes: Dow up 0.2%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Nasdaq gains 0.6%

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By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended higher on
Monday, rebounding from Friday's losses as investors brushed
aside worries about increased tensions in the Middle East and
shares of Alphabet and other internet names gained.
The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY rose along with oil prices
after the U.S. air strike that killed Iran's top military
commander on Friday, raising the threat of a new conflagration
in the Middle East. Stocks investors remained jittery at the start of trade on
Monday but the market gained strength heading into the close.
Friday's losses came a day after major indexes notched record
highs on the new year's first trading day.
"The geopolitical spark knocked it down from its highs, but
in the absence of any additional escalation there, the market
will end up shrugging its shoulders and I think that's what you
saw today," said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Robert
W. Baird in Milwaukee. "The start of a fresh year and the
deployment of fresh capital into the market" helped, he added.
Top internet companies led the S&P 500 higher. Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O rose 2.7% after Pivotal Research upgraded the stock to
"buy."
But chipmakers were among the day's biggest decliners, after
ranking as star performers in 2019. The Philadelphia
semiconductor index .SOX , which surged about 60% last year,
was down 1.0%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 68.5 points, or
0.24%, to 28,703.38, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 11.43 points, or
0.35%, to 3,246.28, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 50.70
points, or 0.56%, to 9,071.47.
Boeing Co BA.N ended up 0.3%, reversing slight losses
earlier. The Wall Street Journal reported that the planemaker
was considering plans to raise more debt to bolster its finances
after the grounding of its 737 MAX jet. The S&P 500 communication services index .SPLRCL was the
top gainer among the major sectors, rising 1.2%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.17-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 73 new highs and 26 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.77 billion shares, compared
to the 6.93 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.