Weeklong Rally Lifts Index

Submitted by ub on

Happy Market Independence Week

American stock markets wrapped up one of their strongest weeks in two years with further gains on Friday, erasing their losses from earlier in June.

An unexpected upturn in manufacturing and easing of concerns about a public-debt default in Greece were the driving forces.

The Dow industrial closed on Friday at 12,582.77, a gain of 1.36 percent for the day and 5.4 percent for the week, in preliminary figures. The broader S&P 500 did much better, gaining 1.44% on Friday and 6% for the week.