US stocks rose for the third consecutive week as airlines including AMR Corp gained amid falling oil prices.
Retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc climbed as the holiday shopping season began. Stores are opening early, closing late and slashing prices this Thanksgiving weekend to attract holiday shoppers in the face of a recession and the threat of terrorism.
Falling oil prices are "good for the economy and for consumers and businesses," said Subodh Kumar, global investment strategist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 13.31, or 1.2 percent, to 1,150.34, with all 11 industry groups gaining. The index rose 1 percent this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 125.03, or 1.3 percent, to 9,959.71, bringing its weekly advance to 0.9 percent. The NASDAQ Composite Index advanced 28.15, or 1.5 percent, to 1,903.20. It added 0.2 percent this week.
US exchanges were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and shut at 1pm New York time on Friday. About 400 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, 69 percent less than the three-month daily average.
The Dow has jumped 21 percent since Sept. 21, while the S&P 500 has climbed 19 percent and the NASDAQ has risen 34 percent since the benchmark indexes hit three-year lows two months ago.
"If the stock market holds these levels, I would take that as a good sign," Kumar said. "The controversy on Wall Street right now is whether we're going to go back down to the September low or start a new cycle in the stock market."
Oil dropped as much as 6.5 percent in London after Russia failed to make significant production cuts to help OPEC boost prices. Russia accounts for 10 percent of the world's oil production. Oil fetches about half what it did a year ago.
The Amex Airline Index rose 4 percent will all 10 members advancing. The index has surged 29 percent in the past two weeks as the price of jet-fuel fell along with crude oil.
AMR, owner of No. 1 American Airlines, rose US$0.53 to US$21 and UAL Corp, parent of No. 2 carrier United Airlines, rose US$0.78 to US$16.62.
Delta Air Lines Inc advanced US$1.02 to US$29.31, Continental Airlines Inc rose US$1.64 to US$22.35 and Northwest Airlines Corp.
gained US$0.89 to US$17.66.
Other transportation stocks also advanced. Roadway Corp, the No. 2 US trucking company, gained US$0.99 to US$31.69; Airborne Inc, the third-largest US air freight carrier, rose US$0.41 to US$13.02; and rail carrier CSX Corp gained US$0.82 to US$37.71.
Wal-Mart climbed US$0.68 to US$55.80, and its smaller rival Target Corp rose US$0.95 to $37.71. Sears Roebuck & Co added US$0.85 to US$45.12, May Department Stores Co advanced 94 cents to US$36.59 and Federated Department Stores Inc. jumped US$1.10 to US$38.21.
Yahoo Inc rose US$0.80 to US$15.73. The operator of the most-used Internet search service said it expects a "double-digit" percentage increase in transactions at its online shopping mall, which features about 10,000 merchants.
Financial companies, whose businesses include credit cards, also gained. Citigroup Inc rose US$1.04 to US$49.94, American Express Co added US$0.87 to US$34.37 and MBNA Corp advanced US$1.08 to US$33.69.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc rose US$2 to US$90.15. The No. 1 securities trader may reduce costs by cutting 1,000 jobs because it hasn't met its goal of keeping total employment unchanged this year, Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Judah Kraushaar said.
General Motors, the largest automaker, rose US$1.45 to US$47.69 while rival Ford Motor Co climbed US$0.75 to US$17.88.
GM would receive US$833 million and Ford stands to get US$1 billion in tax rebates if the corporate alternative minimum tax rule is abolished, the Washington Post said, citing Citizens for Justice, an advocacy group that is against the repeal.
Other Fortune 500 companies also stand to benefit, the group said. President George W. Bush supports abolishing the tax to help spur investment and boost economic growth.
Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing & Co, whose products range from adhesive tape to circuit boards, jumped US$1.90 to US$117.25, leading the Dow.
Ivax Corp rose US$0.65 to US$20.35. The drugmaker said US regulators found its generic version of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's Glucophage diabetes treatment ready for approval after certain issues are resolved. Glucophage sales reached US$1.8 billion last year. Bristol-Myers slipped US$0.5 to US$55.75.
Eli Lilly & Co shed US$0.91 to US$82.42. Prudential Securities Inc analyst Tim Anderson said sales of the company's new drug Xigris for treating Sepsis may be lower than previously thought because it is approved for a limited group of patients.
Anderson lowered his sales estimates for next year for Xigris to US$433 million from US$500 million. He said shares are expensive and rates Lilly "hold."
The Russell 2000 advanced 6.1, or 1.4 percent, to 458.42. The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index, the broadest measure of US shares, rose 121.86, or 1.2 percent, to 10,596.40, adding US$140.1 billion to the total value of US stocks.
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