Stocks gained ground in soft trade Friday, with earnings reports and positive trade balance data boosting investor confidence. The Nasdaq bolted 0.9%. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5% each. Volume was down 6% on the Nasdaq and 10% lower on the NYSE compared with Thursday morning's action. The stock market today opened with the major indexes showing modest losses for the week. But the Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 quickly