NEW YORK — U.S. stocks advanced Thursday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rising to an all-time high, amid better-than-forecast results from Salesforce.com and Best Buy while gauges on the strength of economic growth were mixed.

Best Buy and Salesforce surged 3.9 percent. Energy shares rallied with oil and Transocean gained after reaching a settlement from BP on issues related to the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. CVS added 2.4 percent after saying it will acquire the nursing-home pharmacy Omnicare. NetApp tumbled 10 percent after forecasting sales that missed analysts’ projections.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 2,130.82, its fourth all-time high in the last six sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.34 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 18,285.74. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 0.4 percent. Both the Dow and Nasdaq briefly rose above their record closing levels. About 5.7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 12 percent below the three-month average.

“We’re locked in this environment where we’re more trendless than trending,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist in Philadelphia at Janney Capital Management, which oversees about $68 billion. “There’s enough buying power to keep a bid in equity prices. We’re in this trendless, sideways trading range, maybe grinding higher but no breakout one way or the other.”

Investors are keeping a close watch on the Federal Reserve as policymakers debate the timing on their first interest rate increase since 2006. But the data they’re dependent on for their rate decision continues to provide mixed signals.

Purchases of previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in April, a sign the industry’s recovery remains uneven.


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