Wall Street posts strong week
New York - A rally early this week pushed major US stock indices up more than 7 per cent over the past seven days, despite a flat trading session Friday that left markets little changed.
The flat session to close the week came despite an unexpected drop in the US unemployment rate to a more-than-two-year low of 8.6 per cent in November, from 9 per cent the previous month.
But the fruitful trading week, with its biggest three-day rally since 2009 after surprise moves by six of the world's leading central banks to shore up global financial market liquidity, helped drive jumps of more than 4 per cent on Wednesday alone.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.61 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 12,019.42 on Friday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.3 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 1,244.28. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.73 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 2,626.93.
For the week, the Dow added 7.01 per cent, the S&P soared 7.39 per cent, and the Nasdaq rose 7.59 per cent.
The US dollar gained against the euro to 74.68 euro cents from 74.3 euro cents on Thursday. The dollar rose against the Japanese currency to 77.99 yen from 77.72 yen.//DPA