S&P 500 notches a new closing high

U.S. stocks ended higher Friday and the S&P hit a fresh record high -- its seventh this year -- a day after a pause ended the Dow's nine-day winning streak.

Investors continued to analyze incoming quarterly earnings reports and the release of the first post-'Brexit' economic data in Britain and Europe.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 0.4% to a new closing high of 2175.03, while the technology stock dominated Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which saw its longest daily winning streak in more than three years snapped Thursday, ended up 0.3%.

The U.S. stock market has been on a bullish run since the initial two-day sell-off following the June 23 Britain vote to exit the eurozone. Prior to Thursday's pullback, both the Dow and S&P 500 have been hitting records after taking out their prior peaks dating back to May 2015.

The surge higher for U.S. stocks has been driven in part by a decent start to the second-quarter earnings season, as reports are coming in less bad than originally feared. Heading into Friday's session, of the 103 stocks in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 67% have topped results, above the long-term average of 63%, according to earnings-tracker Thomson Reuters. Earnings growth for S&P 500 companies overall are seen contracting for 3.3% for the quarter, Thomson Reuters says.

In addition to getting fresh earnings Friday from blue-chip names like General Electric (GE) and Honeywell (HON) -- both companies topped earnings-per-share forecasts), Wall Street is also digesting fresh manufacturing data from Europe and Britain, the first such data since the so-called 'Brexit' vote last month.

GE shares fell 2% and Honeywell, which lowered its 2016 revenue guidance, was off 2.4%.

As expected, the initial post-'Brexit' data from the U.K. was weak. In fact, the so-called "flash" PMI data in the U.K. declined across the board, with a bigger-than-expected weakening seen in manufacturing, service and the overall composite index.

Peter Rosenstreich, head of market strategy at Swissquote Bank, called it a "grim post-'Brexit' PMI read" told USA Today via email that the weak data marked "of of the sharpest drops in U.K. PMI history."

Barclays called the weak PMI data in the U.K. as "consistent with an imminent recession" there.

On the bright side, manufacturing PMI data in the eurozone came in better than expected, with the broad eurozone topping expectations as did Germany and France.

Stocks in London rose, however, as the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% amid fresh hopes that the hit to the U.K. economy will give the Bank of England even more ammunition to provide more stimulus to markets and the economy at its next policy meeting.

Stocks in Europe were trading virtually unchanged, with the broad Stoxx Europe 600 index off less than  0.1%. Shares fell in 1.1% in Japan and 0.2% in Hong Kong overnight.