Major indexes up about 2% for week

NEW YORK — Lower oil prices and a rebound in manufacturing helped Wall Street extend its rally Friday, lifting the Dow Jones industrials and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a fresh five-year high for the fourth straight session. The major indexes each gained about 2 percent for the week.

At the close of trading, the Dow climbed 26.41 to 11,279.65, its highest level since reaching 11,301.74 May 21, 2001.

Microsoft, one of the 30 Dow stocks, gained 23 cents Friday to close at $27.50 a share, ending up 1.2 percent for the week. Boeing, also a Dow stock, rocketed $1.12 Friday to $77.85, an all-time high, and up 4.1 percent for the week.

Broader stock indicators also gained ground. The S&P 500 index rose 1.92 to 1,307.25 — its highest close since it reached 1,309.38 May 22, 2001 — and the Nasdaq composite index added 6.92 to 2,306.48.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 gained 2 percent and the Nasdaq ended 1.9 percent higher.

Investors cheered a Federal Reserve report that the nation's industrial production grew 0.7 percent in February after sliding 0.3 percent the month before, with the onset of cold weather driving an upswing in utilities output.

The promising economic report overshadowed downbeat earnings news from General Motors, which said its 2005 loss was $2 billion more than originally reported.

Insurance firm American International Group (AIG) also posted a steep drop in profit from settling regulatory charges.

But stocks' gains were limited as the day's headlines did little to address Wall Street's persistent worries about inflation and more interest-rate increases from the Fed, said Ken Tower, chief market strategist for Schwab's CyberTrader.

"I think the question the market is struggling with is whether we are concerned about inflation and too strong an economy, or if the Fed is raising interest rates too much and cooling things off," Tower said. "So we have a little pause in the market today as it tries to work this question out."

Trading was volatile amid sharply higher volume as four types of options and futures contracts expired, known as the quarterly "quadruple witching" day. Advancing issues led decliners by 6 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume of 2.01 billion shares handily beat the 1.66 billion shares changing hands at the same point Thursday.