NEW YORK — U.S. stocks on Friday ended higher for a fourth day in five, with the major indexes all scoring weekly gains, lifted by software giant Microsoft Corp.’s blockbuster $44.6 billion bid for Internet search engine Yahoo Inc.
“One of the most important developments today was that the bond market decided that interest rates will stay lower for longer,” said Tony Crescenzi, bond market strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 92.8 points, or 0.7 percent, to end at 12,743.19, giving the blue chips a weekly rise of 4.4 percent.
Of the Dow’s 30 components, 22 advanced, led by Citigroup Inc., up 5.4 percent.
Another Dow component, General Motors Corp. also advanced, up 2.7 percent, with the Detroit automaker beating its rivals in January sales.
“Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo offers investors hope that value can now be found in the U.S. stock market,” said Frederic Ruffy, an analyst at Optionetics.
While helping bolster sentiment across the broader market, the bid by Microsoft weighed on its stock, with shares of the technology titan off 6.3 percent in the wake of its $31-a-share offer for Yahoo.
Shares of Yahoo gained 48.8 percent on the news of the unsolicited takeover bid, the largest yet in the high-tech sector, according to data from Thomson Financial.
The S&P 500 climbed 16.87 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,395.42, up 4.9 percent from week-earlier levels.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 23.5 points, or 1 percent, to 2,413.36, a 3.7 percent lift on the week.
Volume neared 1.8 billion on the New York Stock Exchange, with advancing stocks topping those declining by roughly 4 to 1. On the Nasdaq, more than 3 billion shares changed hands, and advancers remained almost 3 to 1.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude-oil futures slumped $2.79 to finish at $88.96 a barrel. Gold futures dropped sharply, with gold for April delivery down $14.50 to end at $913.5 an ounce.
The first batch of key economic data Friday came in much weaker than expected. Nonfarm payrolls fell by an estimated 17,000 in January, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an 85,000 increase in the figure.
“The January employment report unequivocally indicates that the U.S. economy is contracting,” said Tony Crescenzi, chief bond strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.
And, as has been the case in weeks of market volatility, weak economic data was viewed in varying light, given the potential impact on U.S. monetary policy and Federal Reserve moves.
“Before today, the bond market was pricing in the possibility that by early 2009 the Federal Reserve would begin to take back its interest rate cuts,” said Crescenzi. “This view changed after today’s employment report, with the bond market deciding that any rate reversal would take longer.”
