Verizon, chipmakers lift Wall St.

NEW YORK — US stocks rose on Monday, with Verizon boosting the telecoms sector after the stock got an upgrade, while a deal in semiconductors lifted highperforming tech shares.

With no major earnings or economic data scheduled this week, trading volumes were thin and expected to get even quieter leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and an early market close on Friday.

Overall trading volume was the lightest in a month.

Verizon boosted the telecom services sector of the S& P 500 with a 1.70% advance to $46.20 after a Wells Fargo note highlighted the stock’s valuation and said it was “an attractive yield play.”

Telecoms are down 17% this year, compared with a 15% advance on the S&P 500.

“There’s a bounce in telecoms, which have been the worst group so far this year,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment off icer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.

“There’s always a chance that something disrupts the apple cart, but there’s very little news and a lot of people focusing on the football games and the turkey dinner,” he said, referring to the staples of the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Cavium touched a record high of $84.41 after larger rival Marvell said it would buy the company for about $6 billion. Cavium shares were last up 10.80% at $ 84.02 and Marvell shares rose 6.40% to $21.59.

The semiconductor index rose 1.20% and touched its highest level since the highs of the Y2K bubble.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.09 points, or 0.31%, to 23,430.33; the S&P 500 gained 3.29 points, or 0.13%, to 2,582.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 7.92 points, or 0.12%, to 6,790.71.

Small cap stocks on the Russell 2000 rose 0.70%, outperforming the large-cap indices.

Time Warner, Inc. shares slid after reports the US Justice Department will sue to prevent AT&T from buying Time Warner.

Time Warner ended down 1.10% at $87.71.

Health stocks were weighed by a 2% drop in Merck to $54.10 and a 0.80% fall in Bristol-Myers after Roche announced positive trial results for a competing cancer drug.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1.50 to one; on Nasdaq, a 1.54to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 129 new highs and 28 new lows. —