BIG BLUE: IBM helped pull the stock market out of a morning slump after the tech giant said it will add a dime to its quarterly dividend and buy back up to $5 billion more of its own stock.
SIX MONTHS STRAIGHT: The Standard & Poor's 500 index ended April with a 1.8 percent gain, the sixth month in a row the index has risen.
FINAL SCORE: The S&P 500 edged up 3.96 points to close at 1,597.57, a gain of 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 21.05 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,839.80.
