NEW YORK - Wall Street regained its upward momentum Friday as the market extended its feel-good rally amid brighter economic prospects.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36.28 points (0.37 percent) to hit a fresh 11-month high of 9,820.20, a day after investors locked in profits and took a breather after a long market rally.
The key blue-chip Dow index has rebounded more than 45 percent from its March lows.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 6.11 points (0.29 percent) to 2,132.86 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2.81 points (0.26 percent) to 1,068.30 for its ninth gain in 11 sessions.
All the three key stock indexes advanced more than two percent on the week.
There was no fresh economic news on Friday, but analysts at Barclays Capital boosted their growth outlook for the United States, calling for an acceleration to a 5.0 percent expansion by early 2010 before settling back to a more sustainable pace.
Barclays economist Dean Maki said that based on historical data, "the strength of a recovery has been proportional to the depth of the recession" and added that "by that standard, our peak quarter of 5.0 percent growth can actually be thought of as conservative."
"There weren't any major news items or economic items to act as positive trading catalysts this session, but the market's bullish bias still came through," analysts at Briefing.com said in a note.
Volatility picked up on end of quarter expiration of four key equity contracts in the futures and options markets, analysts said.
"We believe a big part of the rally lately has been due to aggressive traders and hedge funds," said Wells Fargo Advisors chief market strategist Al Goldman.
Among the laggards was smart phone maker Palm, which reported a smaller-than-expected first quarter loss and larger-than-anticipated revenues but offered disappointing second quarter revenue guidance.
It fell 2.98 percent to 14.01 dollars.
Texas Instruments rose 1.95 percent to 24.06 dollars after the semiconductor maker raised its dividend.
Procter & Gamble jumped 3.22 percent to 57.32 dollars after analysts at Citigroup upgraded the consumer-staples bellwether stock.
Oil giant Chevron rose 0.93 percent to 72.64 dollars while Internet giant Google gained 0.05 percent to 491.46 dollars.
The bond market fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 3.474 percent from 3.398 percent Thursday while that on the 30-year bond climbed to 4.231 percent from 4.178 percent a day earlier.
- AFP /ls
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