Stocks on Wall Street extended their rally to a fourth, ending the week 3% higher as investors focused on US economic policy.The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly slipped into the red late in the session during a speech by President Obama calling for f
Stocks on Wall Street extended their rally to a fourth, ending the week 3% higher as investors focused on US economic policy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly slipped into the red late in the session during a speech by President Obama calling for further action on banking regulation, health-care reform and other issues.
But it recovered to end with a modest gain, up 9.45 points, or 0.1%, at 10,402.35.
The Dow rose in every session of the holiday-shortened week. Most of the gains came on Tuesday as investors shifted their attention away from a simmering debt crisis in Greece and toward increasing signs that a recovery is taking hold in the US.
That trend continued on Friday after the Federal Reserve's move to increase the discount rate on emergency loans by a quarter percentage point to 0.75%, a move that was signalled for some time and is a sign economic strength.
The Nasdaq Composite Index ended 0.1% higher at 2243.87. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% to 1109.17, led by gains in utilities and financials.
Other markets
Canadian stocks rose, boosted by gains in the energy and metals sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index rose 0.2%, or 28 points, to stand at 11,721.
Major European stock markets erased early losses to post their fifth consecutive gain, aided by strong results from Nestlé.
The Swiss food giant climbed 2.4% as it reported better-than-expected 2009 earnings and announced plans to lift its dividend and buy back more shares.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 0.5% to 250.30, its ninth gain in 10 sessions. The index climbed 3.9% over the week, its biggest weekly gain in nearly seven months.
Worries about Greece's fiscal woes moved to the backburner for the day, as the Greek ASE Composite index climbed 2.4% to 1927.62.
The FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 5358.17, its highest close since January 20, as investors shook off disappointing UK retail sales in January.
The French CAC-40 rose 0.6% to 3769.54, bringing its gain for the week to 4.7%. That also was the index's best weekly showing since the week ending July 17.
The German DAX gained 0.7% to 5722.05.
Stocks in Hong Kong and Japan fell more than 2% as Asian markets reacted to the higher US Fed discount rate.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average of 225 companies fell 2.1% to 10,123.58, leaving it up 0.3% for the week.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell below 20,000, ending down 2.6% at 19,894.02. All but two of the 42 blue-chip constituents ended in negative territory.
South Korea's Kospi fell 1.7% to 1593.90, while markets in China, Taiwan and Vietnam were closed all week for the Lunar New Year.
Commodities: Oil, gold up
Crude oil rose to its highest level in over five weeks as a strike by French refinery workers raised concern about future supply.
Workers at the French refineries and storage units of oil major Total are protesting over plans to cut refining capacities.
Total has said that due to the substantial level of stocks there is no supply or outage issues, but this failed to allay the oil market.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery settled 75USc, or 1%, higher at $US79.81 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled 41USc, or 0.5% higher, at $US78.19 a barrel.
Gold futures erased losses sustained after the discount rate increase as traders came to view the move as less bearish than initially thought.
April gold gained $US3.40, or 0.3%, to settle at $US1122.10 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Euro, dollar up
The euro rebounded as the discount rate was viewed as a sign of economic recovery and made riskier assets such as stocks and oil more attractive.
The euro's rally erased most of the decline in response to the Fed's move on Thursday, when the common currency lost more than 1USc on the initial interpretation that central banks in Europe and Japan would lag behind the US in lifting interest rates.
The euro was at $US1.3613, up from $US1.3527 late on Thursday. The dollar was at ¥91.65 Japanese, off from ¥91.80, while the euro was at ¥124.64, above ¥124.25.
The UK pound was at $US1.5467, down from $US1.5575.
The Canadian dollar was lower, with one US dollar buying $C1.0445, up 0.4%.
