NEW YORK, New York – U.S. stocks rose on Friday, partly on the back of a huge gain by Apple, which jumped 10.50% to close at an historic high.

The move also catapulted the iphone-maker to being the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Saudi Aramco.

Apple, with their shares now at $425, announced a stock split, whilst also revealing much better than expected quarterly results.

Amazon and Facebook also made strong gains.

“The rally at the end of the day was built on this insatiable demand for these growth companies that have been reporting earnings off the charts. It’s fear of being left behind,” Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York told Reuters Thomson Friday..

The U.S. dollar, which has been under relentless pressure, also clawed back a portion of its recent losses in a well-timed correction.

At the close of trading Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 114.67 points, or 0.44%, at 26,428.32.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 rose 24.9 points, or 0.77%, to 3,271.12.

The Nasdaq Composite once again did best of all, gaining 157.46 points, or 1.49%, to 10,745.28.

The dollar index .DXY, which monitors the U.S. dollar versus a basket of currencies, rose 0.446 point, or 0.48%, to 93.467.

The euro which earlier in the day was around 1.1900, retreated to 1.1777 by the New York close Friday. The British pound shaved off a few points to finish around 1.3086. The Japanese yen was sharply lower at 105.89. The Swiss franc eased to 0.9127.

The Canadian dollar was slightly lower at 1.3411. The Australian dollar shed just over half-a-cent from earlier highs above 0.7200, to 0.7149. The New Zealand dollar dropped three-quarters of a cent to 0.6629,

In London, the FTSE 100 declined 1.54%. The Paris-based CAC 40 dropped 1.43%, while the German Dax was off 0.54%.

On Asian markets, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index plummeted 629.23 points, or 2.82% to 21,710.00.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, declined 43.41 points, or 2.82% to 1,496.06.

The Australian All Ordinaries declined 119.20 points or 1.93% to 6,058.30.

China’s Shanghai Composite, going against the trend, added 23.18 points or 0.71% to 3,310.01.