Wall St. Extends Holiday Rally

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 -- A late surge in a shortened trading session pushed stocks higher Friday, extending a rally that left the Dow Jones industrial average 9.7 percent higher for the week.

The blue-chip index climbed 1 percent, or 102.43 points, to close at 8829.04. The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 1 percent, or 8.56 points, to 896.24, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 0.2 percent, or 3.47 points, to 1535.57.

Auto stocks were among the biggest gainers as investors predicted that Detroit's Big Three would pledge new rounds of cost cuts when they go before Congress next week to ask again for federal aid. Ford Motor shares jumped 25 percent, or 54 cents, to $2.69, while General Motors rose 9 percent, or 43 cents, to $5.24.

Citigroup shares rose nearly 18 percent, or $1.24, to $8.29. The stock has more than doubled in value since the bank received government help in a bailout package that came together at the start of the week, but shares are still down almost 72 percent this year.

Other gainers Friday included General Electric, Bank of America and Caterpillar.

"It's impossible to know whether we're on the way up from here, but it kind of feels like we've been going through a bottoming-out process," said Robert Millen, a portfolio manager with Jensen Investment Management.

"Most of the bad news should be priced into the market, and now you've got this extraordinary stimulus package coming and an extraordinary amount of liquidity that's been pumped into the banking system, and that should all be positive," he said.

More than two-thirds of the Dow's components finished higher in the session, which ended at 1 p.m. for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, a broad-based rally in technology stocks helped the Nasdaq recover from declines suffered earlier in the day.

"A lot of great tech stocks have had their prices beaten down so far that they're just very attractive right now," Millen said. "I think there's still concern about the amount of tech spending that will go on, but you can only delay that so often, and for most businesses there's a pretty nice payback to investing in technology."

Concerns about the rippling effects of a deep recession were still front and center in the energy markets. Amid signs of slowing demand by industrial users, natural gas futures contracts fell 5.4 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while crude oil for January delivery dropped a fraction of a percent to $54.43 a barrel.

The slump in prices pushed down shares of energy companies, including Hess, Southwestern Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, EOG Resources and XTO Energy.

Chesapeake Energy was the biggest decliner in the S&P, after the Oklahoma City-based natural gas producer said it may sell $1 billion of stock to finance exploration and other projects, and could sell additional stock to raise money for acquisitions. Chesapeake shares fell 15 percent, or $3.06, to $17.18.

Shares of home builders also fell, with D.R. Horton down 9 percent, or 65 cents to $6.87, and Centex off by 1.4 percent, or 13 cents, to $9.16.

Dun & Bradstreet, the business information provider, got a boost after S&P announced it would add the company to the benchmark S&P 500 on Dec. 2. Dun & Bradstreet shares jumped nearly 5 percent, or $3.48, to $80.

Shares of apparel maker Liz Claiborne, which will be removed from the index, rose 2 percent, or 5 cents, to $2.85 as the stock rebounded from a 20 percent plunge at the opening of the session.