Weekend markets: Wall Street rally continues

Stocks on Wall Street held their gains from Thursday’s big rally and ended with the fifth straight week of advances.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.56 points, or 0.2% to 12,231.11 after bouncing between gains and losses through much of the trading day.

It was the third successive daily rise and brought the week’s gain to 3.6%.

The index jumped 339.51 points on Thursday as investors cheered a European plan to combat Greece's debt issues, expand a bailout facility and recapitalise the region's biggest banks.

The S&P 500 rose half a point to end at 1285.09 while the Nasdaq Composite slipped by 1.5 points, or 0.1%, to 2737.15, with both indexes ending 3.8% higher for the week.

Other markets: Europe dips, Asia advances
European stock markets finished strong week on a slightly lower note as investors booked some of their recent gains.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped 0.2% to end at 249 but posted a gain of 4.2% for the week.

London's FTSE 100 index fell 0.2% to 5702.24 but but gained 3.9% for the week and marked five weeks of advances.

In Paris, the CAC-40 index slipped 0.6% to 3348.63 but rose 5.6% for the week.

In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 index closed up 0.1% at 6346.19 and capped five weeks of gains with a 6.3% surge.

Markets in Asia extended an advance that started on Thursday on moves to end the debt crisis in Europe.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.4% to 9050.47, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended up 1.7% at 20,032.88, the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.6% to 2473.41 and India's Sensex rose 3% to 17,804.80.

Indexes in Korea and Australia ended with more modest gains, with the Kospi up 0.4% to 1929.48 and the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.1% to 4353.30.

The moves wound up a strong week for Asian equities, with the Hang Seng Index adding 11.1%, the Nikkei Average rising 4.3%, the Kospi up 5%, the ASX 200 ahead by 5.1%, and the Shanghai Composite adding 6.7%.

Commodities: Oil, gold down
Oil futures turned lower as the market took a break from the recent run-up.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery traded down $US1.46, or 1.6%, to $US92.50 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on ICE Futures Europe fell $US2.15, or 1.9%, to $US109.93 a barrel.

Gold futures snapped a five-day winning streak amid quiet trading in New York.

Gold for November delivery, the front-month contract, settled 50USc cents lower at $US1746.20 an ounce. The contract was up 6.8% for the week.

Currencies: Euro falls from high
The euro fell from a seven-week high it hit the previous session, as euphoria over the European debt agreement faded.

It was at $US1.4156 from $US1.4188 late on Thursday. Before the latest euro-zone plan was announced, it was at $US1.39, shooting to an intraday high of $US1.4248 on Thursday.

The US dollar continued to trade near record lows against the yen at ¥75.75 from ¥75.95 late on Thursday. The euro was at ¥107.25 compared with ¥107.75.

The UK pound bought $US1.6119 compared with $US1.6099, while the dollar fetched 0.8622 Swiss franc from 0.8600 franc.