US stocks end week with strong rally

Healthcare and financial stocks lead rally

US stocks rallied on Friday, 18 March 2016 buoyed by an advance in heath-care and financial stocks that helped shares notch a fifth straight week of gains. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials ended in positive territory for the year, while the Dow logged six days of gains in a rowthe longest winning streak since early October.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 120.81 points, or 0.7%, to close at 17,602.30. The S&P 500 gained 8.97 points, or 0.4%, to 2,049.56. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 20.66 points, or 0.4%, at 4,795.65.

Goldman Sachs Group and J.P. Morgan Chase contributed more than 40 points to the blue-chip gauge.

Stocks held on to their gains despite a reversal in oil prices which added to an earlier slump after data from Baker Hughes showed that the weekly number of active U.S. oil rigs edged higher for the first time this year.

The Fed's decision on Wednesday to hold rates steady and pencil in fewer rate hikes this year boosted stocks, but it reflected a central bank feeling its way through tremendous uncertainty.

On Friday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the U.S. central bank's inflation and employment goals have essentially been met and it would be prudent to raise interest rates.

Meanwhile, a March figure for consumer sentiment fell slightly in March mainly due to the expectation that gasoline prices will rise. Among economic data expected for the day, the preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey showed a dip in consumer sentiment to 90.0 from the final reading of 91.7 for February. The consensus estimate projected a slight increase to 92.2. In February, the expected inflation rate for both periods was 2.5%. In March 2015, however, the expected change in the inflation rate for the next year was 3.0% while the expected change in the inflation rate for the next five years was 2.8%. Concerns about the economy and rising gas prices helped drive a downturn in the Expectations Index to 80.0 from 81.9, although the Current Economic Conditions Index also slipped to 105.6 from 106.8. The report said consumers do not anticipate a recession, yet they no longer expect the economy either to do better than the 2.4% growth rate recorded in the past two years.

Bullion prices settled lower on Friday, 18 March 2016 giving back a portion of the hefty climb seen a day earlier and giving up a gain for the week, as U.S. equities and the dollar strengthened. April gold fell $10.70, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,254.30 an ounce, pulling back after rallying to 2.9% a day earlier. Prices saw a 0.4% weekly loss, their fourth losing week in five. May silver ended at $15.811 an ounce, down 22.2 cents, or 1.4%, following a more than 5% jump on Thursday. For the week, prices logged a gain of 1.3%.

The ICE U.S. dollar index was set to end the week about 1.2% lower, but was edging up in Friday action. U.S. stocks gained, with some indexes now positive for the year.

Crude oil futures settled with a loss on Friday, 18 March 2016 pressured by the first weekly increase in the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs, but prices still logged a fifth weekly advance in a row.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures for April delivery fell 76 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $39.44 a barrel after topping $41 during the session. For the week, prices for the most-active contracts gained roughly 6.9% but the April contract itself, which expires at Monday's settlement, tacked on about 2.4%.

The Treasury complex traversed a narrow range today as the yield on the 10-yr note fluctuated between 1.87% and 1.89% before ending at the bottom of that range.

Today's participation was well above the recent average as options expiration boosted the number of shares traded on the NYSE floor to more than 2.147 billion.

Monday's economic calendar will also be light with Existing Home Sales for February (consensus 5.37 million) set to cross the wires at 10:00 ET.

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