Wall Street surges with the Dow

The U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, with the Dow and Nasdaq turning positive in 2011. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 166.36 points, or 1.45 percent,to 11,644.49. The blue-chip index gained 4.88 percent for the week, the third weekly gain in a row and 0.58 percent for 2011. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 20.92 points, or 1.74 percent, to end at 1,224.58. For the week, the broader index surged more than 6 percent, the best since July 2009. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 47.61 points, or 1.82 percent, to 2,667.85. The index gained 7.6 percent for the week and 0.56 percent for 2011. The CBOE VIX index, known as fear index declined 8.01 percent on Friday, losing 21.99 percent for the week but still jumping 59.10 percent for 2011. Friday's rally was due to positive data and earnings. On economic front, U.S. retail sales in Sept. jumped 1.1 percent, beating the 0.3-percent gain in August and estimates of a 0.7- percent gain. Meanwhile, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary Oct. reading on consumer sentiment declined to 57.5 from 59.4 the month before. As for earnings, Google led the Nasdaq best performer after it posted positive results late on Thursday, beating previous Wall Street's expectations, thanks to strong advertising sales and deft cost controls. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. reported Thursday its third quarter earnings fell 4 percent, due to mortgage credit loss and weakness in investment banking, but the result still beat the estimates. Financial shares led the laggards as JP Morgan posted a slightly negative earning report and rating agency Fitch cut a series of banks' credit rating on late Thursday. Fitch on Thursday cut three European banks credit ratings and put seven international financial institutions in negative watch list. Some investors still concerned that European debt crisis would further hurt U.S. banks, which might have deep relationship with troublesome European peers. On euro front, Standard & Poor's Thursday cut Spain' s long- term debt rating from AA to AA-, with a negative outlook. The ratings agency said in a statement that the country's growth prospects still have risks due to high unemployment, tighter financial conditions, the still high level of private sector debt, and the likely economic slowdown in the country's main trading partners. As for oil, crude prices surged on Friday as U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in September, easing recession fears and news said the Group of 20 Countries may propose new plan to tackle European debt crisis. Light, sweet crude for November delivery jumped 2.57 dollars, or 3.05 percent to settle at 86.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, it rose 3.82 dollars, or 4. 60 percent. In London, Brent crude for November delivery surged 3.57 dollars, or 3.21 percent to close at 114.68 dollars a barrel. For the week, it added 8.8 dollars, or 8.3 percent, the biggest increase since Feb. 25. The November contract expired on Friday. Dec. contract rose 3. 03 dollars to settle at 112.23 dollars a barrel.