Wall Street consolidated gains ahead of the weekend on Friday as climbing stocks sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to its first ever close above 1,800.

The S&P 500 added 0.50 percent to finish the day at 1,804.76, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.34 percent higher at 16,064.77, and the NASDAQ added 0.57 percent for a closing total of 3,991.65.

Apparel footwear retailer Foot Locker Inc. (FL) put in an especially good performance on the day, with shares closing over 4 percent higher on news that the company saw strong same-store sales growth during its recently-ended third quarter.

A number of healthcare stocks fared well, especially on the S&P where Gilead Sciences (GILD) ended the day up nearly 4 percent. Biotech firm Biogen Idec (BIIB) had gained almost 13 percent after the company won 10 years of market exclusivity in Europe for a new multiple sclerosis treatment it has been working on.

Tech shares also figured in to the day’s rally. While storage device manufacturer Violin Memory (VMEM) saw shares down a whopping 50 percent, and Intel (INTC) was off by about 5 percent, Micron Technology (MU) , Microsoft (MSFT) were both up on heavy trading, and QUALCOMM (QCOM) rose over 5 percent. Application software firm Splunk Inc. (SPLK) had advanced nearly 23 percent.

In oil and gas news, struggling explorer/driller Halcon Resources (HK), pared back earlier gains to end the day one percent higher after research firm MLV initiated coverage on the stock at “hold”.

For more commodities coverage, our in-house coffee expert Joel Anderson continues his investigationon recent price action in the caffeinated beans market.

Meanwhile, Equities.com’s own mild-mannered analyst Nicolas Bhandari continues his series on investment alternatives to equity-based mutual funds with a report on Treasury Inflation Protected Securities. Jacob Harper, for his part, lays out the basics of dividends investing.