Business Highlights

Stocks post their best week since July

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is keeping its momentum going, giving shares their best week in more than two months.

Moderate gains on Friday led by health care and utility companies pushed stocks to a 4 percent gain for the week, their best performance since July. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 78 points to 9,864.94, reaching its highest level in a year.

Bond prices tumbled, extending the previous day's losses, as the Treasury market struggled to absorb $71 billion of new supply auctioned off this week in the government's ongoing efforts to fund its stimulus programs.

The market's performance was a fitting way to commemorate the second anniversary of the record highs set by the Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which closed at 14,164.53 and 1,565.15 respectively. It was after reaching those milestones that the market began what turned into a cataclysmic slide that ended March 9.

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