Dow's Winning Streak Continues

Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, led by gains in technology companies after Microsoft reported surprisingly strong results, the AP reports. The gains Wednesday extended a winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average and kept the market at record-high levels. Microsoft jumped 5% after the company reported big gains in its cloud computing services. That helped send other technology stocks higher. Intuitive Surgical and uniform rental company Cintas also rose sharply after their own results beat forecasts. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9 points, or 0.4%, to 2,173. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 36 points, or 0.2%, to 18,595. The Nasdaq composite climbed 53 points, or 1.1%, to 5,089. (More Dow Jones stories.)