S&P 500 ends at record on housing, HP

NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters): The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Friday, buoyed by a rally in housing stocks after better-than-expected home sales and a jump in Hewlett-Packard shares a day after the personal computer maker said it would cut more jobs.
The S&P 500 ended above 1,900, just below a record intraday high of 1,902.17 set on May 13 and above its record closing high of 1,897.45 the same day.
Eight of the 10 S&P sector indexes ended higher for the day.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose 0.8 per cent to close at a record high, after hitting a lifetime intraday high of 7,995.39.
Housing stocks ranked among the market's biggest outperformers, with the housing index up 1.9 per cent.
Big tech names like Apple Inc and Amazon lifted the Nasdaq and helped it outperform the broader market. Apple shares ended up 1.1 per cent at $614.13. Amazon shares jumped 2.4 per cent to $312.24.
Hewlett-Packard jumped 6.1 per cent to $33.72. The stock was among the S&P 500's best performers a day after the personal computer maker said it may cut as many as 16,000 more jobs in a major ramp-up of CEO Meg Whitman's years-long effort to turn the company around and relieve pressure on its profit margins.