Washington - US stocks surged Friday after President George W Bush and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke pledged to keep the home mortgage crisis from dampening economic growth. Financial and consumer shares rose after Bush said the US government would help struggling homeowners preserve financing for their mortgages. Bernanke helped by saying the Fed would "act as needed" to limit damage to the broader economy.
Wall Street turned in its first monthly gain since May as all three major indexes gained more than 1 percent in August. That followed the biggest fall in four years.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, Wall Street's broadest gauge, added 16.35 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 1,473.99. All but three of the 30 blue-chip Dow Jones industrials gained, boosting the index 0.9 per cent to 13,357.74 The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index surged 31.06, or 1.2 per cent, to 2,596.36.
For the week, the Nasdaq rose 0.8 per cent, the Dow average lost 0.2 per cent and the S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent.
Subprime mortgages, which helped Americans with low credit ratings buy homes, have triggered turmoil in financial markets as stretched mortgage holders have increasingly defaulted on their home loans.
The US dollar dipped to 73.37 euro cents Friday from 73.39 on Thursday, and to 115.78 Japanese yen from 115.97.
Gold rose 6.00 dollars to 672.00 dollars per fine ounce.
