U.S. stocks end with fourth-straight weekly gain

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Blue-chip stocks managed a tiny gain as investors grew less concerned about Greece's debt load, though some participants moved to take money off the table following a steady rally that had carried the market to an 18-month high this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (INDU 10,850, +9.15, +0.08%) seesawed before ending with a 9.15-point gain, up 0.1%, at 10850.36, up 1% for the week. The Dow was up 68 points at its morning high but struggled throughout the afternoon, especially after a South Korean navy vessel sank along a disputed maritime border with North Korea.
The Dow, Nasdaq Composite /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp (COMP 2,395, -2.28, -0.10%) and S&P 500 /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,167, +0.86, +0.07%) all ended with a fourt- straight weekly gain, the longest such streak for all three indexes since the four-week period ending Aug. 7, 2009.
The market was helped by news that Greece's neighbors have agreed to a plan to bail out the debt-laden nation, if necessary, in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund. On Friday afternoon, the news prompted Standard & Poor's to affirm its ratings stance on Greece.
Though stocks have generally been on a strong run in March, the last two sessions have been rocky, marked by solid intraday rallies that gave way to lackluster finishes in the afternoon.
With the Dow hovering close to 11000, at levels not seen since the pivotal late-September 2008 period in the financial crisis, more traders have been willing to bet that the market is overdue for a correction to shake out speculative excess.
"You're seeing a lot of turbulence," said Dick Del Bello, senior partner at Conifer Group. "There's not a lot of bad news and a few good things out there that people are hanging their hats on."
The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1% to 2395.13, up 0.9% for the week. The index was hurt by a 1.3% retreat in Oracle Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!orcl/quotes/nls/orcl (ORCL 25.74, +0.05, +0.20%) after the company reported a decline in fiscal third-quarter profit.
Driven by the news surrounding Greece, the euro /quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd (CUR_EURUSD 1.3411, +0.0134, +1.0093%) hit a 10-month high against the dollar Friday morning. It recently traded at $1.3419, up $1.3282 from late Thursday.
Treasury prices rose, with the 10-year note /quotes/comstock/31*!ust10y (UST10Y 3.85, -0.03, -0.83%) up 8/32 to yield 3.853%. See Bond Report
Gold ended higher higher while oil futures fell.

Index Close % Change
Dow 10850.36 +0.08
S&P 500 1166.59 +0.07
Nasdaq 2395.13 -0.1
Nasdaq 100 1952.63 +0.18
Russell 2000 678.97 -0.02
Sox Index 362.89 -0.53
Bank Index 52.3 -0.25
Dow Transports 4339.91 +0.12
Dow Utilities 376.36 +0.31
Nikkei 225 10996.37 +1.55
Gold - Front Month 1108.8 +1.34
Silver - Front Month 16.93 +1.16
Crude Oil 80.13 -0.5
Dollar Index 81.58 -0.72
Euro Spot 1.34 +1.06
Long Bond 20-year 115.44 +0.35
FOTM - Yen Spot 92.49 +0.26
3/26/2010 1:10:43 PM