What a Week: Bear Rout

The end result was a new all-time high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which jumped 1.1% on the week to end at 12,445.52. The S&P 500 marked a new six-year high, up 1.2% this week to close at 1427.09. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.8% on the week, closing Friday at 2457.20.

The rally was broad-based, but segments of the market that benefit from reduced economic worries did particularly well. Friday's move up in the Dow was powered by General Electric(GE Quote), which gained 2.4%, and financial institutions like Citigroup(C Quote), which jumped 1.8%, and Honeywell(HON Quote), which surged 2.3%.

The week was characterized not only by more economic strength, but also strong earnings. The jaw-dropping Wall Street bonuses all over the news were powered by record profit growth for the brokerages, several of which posted blowout fourth quarters this past week. Investors sold the news when it came to shares of Lehman(LEH Quote) and Goldman Sachs(GS Quote), which were slightly down on the week despite their strong reports. But shares of Bear Stearns(BSC Quote) hit a new 52-week high Friday, up 2.3% as the company increased its buyback authorization to $2 billion, and analysts upgraded the company on the heels of its record earnings report.

Adobe Systems(ADBE Quote) gained 4.9% on its fourth-quarter earnings report Friday. Shares of Microsoft(MSFT Quote), Intel(INTC Quote) and Cisco(CSCO Quote) helped boost the Nasdaq on Friday, gaining between 0.4% and 0.9%. Microsoft hit a new 52-week high on the day at $30.19 per share.