Dow Ends Week at Highest Level in a Year
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U.S. stocks gained last week, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest close in a year, as Alcoa unexpectedly reported a profit and economic data signaled the U.S. recession is ending.
Shares of Alcoa jumped 11 percent for the week, the most since June, as the largest U.S. aluminum producer's results were boosted by cost-cutting. Macy's soared 10 percent as U.S. retailers said same-store sales rose for the first time in 13 months.
"If we can get the retail numbers to keep going up, then the stock market will go up," said Jerome L. Dodson, who oversees $2.5 billion at Parnassus Investments in San Francisco.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 4.5 percent, to 1071.49, for the biggest weekly advance in three months. The Dow average advanced 377.27 points, or 4 percent, to 9864.94. The Nasdaq composite index added 4.5 percent, to 2139.28.
Gold, which has climbed for seven of the past eight weeks, reached a record $1,062.70. Australia's monetary policymakers unexpectedly raised borrowing costs, triggering a decline in the dollar and a rally in bullion prices.
The Federal Reserve will be prepared to tighten monetary policy when the outlook for the economy "has improved sufficiently," Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday at a Board of Governors conference in Washington.
"Accommodative policies will likely be warranted for an extended period," Bernanke said. "However, as economic recovery takes hold, we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem."
Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs Group and Google are among companies set to release quarterly results this week.
The Treasury will auction $30 billion of three-month bills and $30 billion of six-month bills Tuesday. They yielded 0.08 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively.
-- Bloomberg News
