Weekend markets: Wall St rises for second week

Stocks on Wall Street finished their second straight week of gains amid the latest plan to resolve the euro zone's debt crisis.

With the exception of the UK, all 27 countries of the European Union agreed to a pact to run only minimal budget deficits.

They also agreed to cap the European Stability Mechanism at €500 billion and that member nations would provide up to €200 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund to increase its funding ability.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 186.56 points, or 1.6%, to 12,184.26, undoing most of the previous day's losses.

The advance was led by financial stocks. J.P. Morgan Chase gained 3%, Bank of America added 2.3% and Morgan Stanley climbed 3.2 %.

DuPont fell 3.2% after the chemical company revised its full-year 2011 earnings outlook to a range that was below analyst expectations.

The Dow advanced 1.2% for the week, adding to the previous week's 7% rally. The Dow is up 1.2% this month and 5.2% for the year.

The S&P 500 index climbed 1.7%, to 1255.19, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.9%, to 2646.85.

Other markets: Europe up, Asia down
European stock markets climbed. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.2% to end at 240.51, its first rise in four sessions and best day since November 30.

The week's loss shrank to just 0.1%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average ended down 1.5% at 8536.46, Australia's S&P/ASX fell 1.8% to 4203.0 and Korea's Kospi lost 2% to 1874.75.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.7% to 18,586.23, while China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.6% to 2315.27.

India's Sensex dropped 1.7% to 16213.46, bringing its loss for the week to 3.8%.

Commodities: Oil, gold up
Oil-futures prices gained on a late push from news of the EU fiscal pact.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery ended up $US1.07, or 1.1%, at $US99.41 a barrel in New York. But the gains weren't enough to compensate for Thursday's rout and the contract ended the week down 1.5%.

Brent crude rose 51USc, or 0.5%, to settle at $US108.62 a barrel. The contract lost 1.2% for the week.

Gold futures rose but not enough to make up for Thursday's steep drop.

The contract for December delivery rose $US3, or 0.2%, to settle at $US1712.80 an ounce in New York and lost 2% for the week.

Currencies: Euro advances
The euro gained as European leaders agreed to closer fiscal ties.

The euro climbed to $US1.3363 from $US1.3347 late on Thursday. It had traded as low as $1.3280 earlier.

The US dollar was at ¥77.61, down from ¥77, and the UK pound fetched $US1.5634, down from $US1.5652.