NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose Friday, snapping three straight days of losses, but benchmark indexes still posted their biggest weekly drops of the year.
Friday’s modest climb, boosted by surges in Intel and Boeing, shaved off only a portion of the week’s losses after anxiety over the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa sent crude-oil prices to their highest levels in more than two years.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed out with its biggest weekly point drop since the week that ended Aug. 13, even though on Friday the measure finished up 61.95 points, or 0.5 percent, at 12,130.45. Boosting the measure, Boeing climbed $1.54, or 2.2 percent, to $72.30, after the Air Force awarded a tanker deal valued at $35 billion to the company late Thursday.
Intel was also strong, rising 58 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $21.86, after Citigroup analysts said sales of personal computers could pick up in March, with Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Marvell Technology Group as three of the biggest beneficiaries.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 43.15, or 1.6 percent, to 2,781.05, its biggest one-day gain since Feb 1. The Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 13.78, or 1.1 percent, to 1,319.88. However, the week’s losses added up to the S&P 500’s worst week since Nov. 12.
Friday’s gains did manage to halt the week’s streak of losses. Crude-oil futures stabilized as worries faded about supply shortages related to the unrest in Libya. Saudi Arabia and a group of major oil-consuming nations said Thursday there is plenty of oil on hand to replace supplies halted from Libya. Nymex crude oil for April delivery settled below $98 a barrel Friday.
“The sentiment seems to be that there’s not going to be a prolonged, drawn-out problem in Libya,” said Michael Yoshikami, chief investment strategist at YCMNET Advisors.
Reassurances that other countries will help make up an oil shortfall calmed the market Friday, he said, but the market won’t “continue to march upwards until the issue with Libya is resolved.”
