New York - The Dow Jones Industrial Average has moved into positive territory for the year as most US stocks climbed higher on Friday, capping a strong week. All major US stock indices are now up for 2009 despite the United States sitting in an 18-month long recession. Stocks have come roaring back since early March, when they reached a 12-year low.
The three-month rally has been spurred by signs that the world's largest economy may be stabilizing after the financial sector nearly came to a complete collapse in October.
But US economists are divided over whether a recovery from the country's worst recession since the 1930s is really taking hold.
Larry Summers, the White House's top economic adviser, said Friday that business and consumer sentiment has started to pick up, but warned against over-optimism.
"To be sure we cannot be complacent. There are always false dawns during financial crises but we are in a different place than we were" in October, Summers told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
On Friday, stocks were led higher by banking shares and gains in electricity companies, but a quarterly loss posted by National Semiconductor pushed down technology stocks.
The blue-chip Dow was up 28.34 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 8,799.26. The broader S&P 500 edged up 1.32 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 946.21. But the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.57 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 1,858.8.
The Dow is now up 0.26 per cent for the year. The S&P 500 has risen 4.76 per cent and the Nasdaq 17.87 per cent since the start of 2009.
The dollar climbed against the euro to 71.40 euro cents from 70.86 euro cents on Thursday. The dollar also rose against the Japanese currency to 98.37 yen from 97.63 yen.
