U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, boosted by a strong reading on quarterly economic growth and by another round of upbeat earnings reports, including Visa, which accounted for nearly 140 points in the Dow industrials.
Despite the bullish data and the Federal Reserve's Wednesday statement indicating the economy is strengthening, gains on the S&P 500 were led by health care and utilities, traditionally defensive sectors.
Analysts cited mutual funds purchases of the best performing stocks for the run in those sectors, as funds close their books for the year at the end of this month. Health care and utilities are both up nearly 20 percent year-to-date.