Updated from 4:02 p.m. EDT
What a difference a day makes -- especially when it marks the beginning of a new quarter. Stocks surged Friday, even as oil prices closed above $50 a barrel for the first time, on a beginning-of-the-quarter buying binge. The Nasdaq closed up 45.36 points, or 2.39%, to 1942.20, and the S&P 500 gained almost 16.92 points, or 1.52%, to 1131.50 -- their highest closing levels since early July. The Dow Industrials added 112.38 points, or 1.11%, to 10,192.65, as the blue-chip index recovered from Thursday's loss. All three major indices closed sharply higher for the week. For the week, all three indices finished higher. The S&P 500 finished up 1.9%, the Dow rose 1.4%, and the Nasdaq gained 62.72 points, or 3.3%.Volume on Friday was strong on the NYSE and Nasdaq, with advancing issues ahead of declining ones by a ratio of 7 to 3. The 10-year Treasury note was down 15/32 to yield 4.18%, while the dollar was higher against the euro and the yen. Gold was lower. Nymex crude reveresed course, with the November futures contract adding 48 cents to $50.12 in regular floor trading. Short-term supply worries persisted as the Nigerian government negotiated with rebels who have disrupted production in the past week. Market-watchers were hard-pressed to attribute the rally to anything fundamental. "I'm going to attribute [today's rally], more than anything else, to the fact that it's a new quarter," said Joe Liro, equity strategist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates. The fourth quarter has tended to be strong in recent years, he said, adding that Friday's "economic numbers were no better than mixed." Liro sees a modest rally in the fourth quarter. "Hopefully, we get the market to rally back to the March highs that we saw in the spring time; we'll be lucky if we do much better than that though," he said. Over the "last four or five weeks, we've seen third-quarter estimates pared back by about a percent overall for S&P 500 companies, and that fact leaves room for more upside surprises than downside surprises as we start seeing those earnings numbers in about two weeks.- Loading Comments...
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| Dow Jones | S&P 500 | NASDAQ | 10-Year Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,023.42 | 1,069.30 | 2,112.44 | 35.03 |
Oil *
76.05
|
|
UP
17.46
|
UP
2.67
|
UP
7.12
|
DOWN
0.30
|
10 Yr
3.50%
SPDR Gold
107.43
|
|
+0.17%
|
+0.25%
|
+0.34%
|
-0.85%
|
Data delayed 20 minutes |














