U.S. stocks posted their best day in nearly two weeks on Thursday, helped by euro-supportive comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a rally in tech shares headlined by Cisco Systems Inc. . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 85.33 points, or 0.7%, to 13,250.11. Cisco, whose 9.6% jump was its highest in a year, led gains for all but seven of the Dow's 30 components. The S&P 500 rose 9.98 points, or 0.7%, to 1,415.51. The tech sector gained 1.5%, the best of the index's 10 industry groups. The Nasdaq Composite rose 31.46 points, or 1%, to 3,062.39.

Copyright © 2012 MarketWatch, Inc.