NEW YORK — Stocks closed higher for a fourth day in five Friday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq rejoining the Dow Jones industrials in positive turf for 2011, after a gauge of consumer confidence exceeded expectations and political moves in Italy and Greece assuaged investor concerns.
“The market is celebrating the back-off in rates in Italy and the new leadership in Greece and Italy. Magic wands are in high demand in Europe,” Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus, noted in e-mailed afternoon commentary.
At the end of a low-volume session, the Dow climbed 259.89 points, or 2.2 percent, to 12,153.68, with all 30 of its components gaining ground.
Blue-chip advancers were led by Walt Disney Co., which rallied 6 percent a day after the company reported a fourth-quarter profit that exceeded expectations.
The S&P rose 24.16 points, or 2 percent, to 1,263.85, with consumer discretionary gaining the most among its 10 industry groups, which all rose.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite advanced 53.60 points, or 2 percent, to 2,678.75.
For the week, the Dow added 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq slid 0.3 percent. The Dow is up 5 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 has edged up 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq Composite has added 1 percent.
The bond market, government offices, and many schools and banks were closed Friday for the Veterans Day holiday.
Helping boost sentiment, Italy’s Senate on Friday voted for austerity measures initially pledged to European Union allies in late October, helping to further bring down the yield on Italy’s 10-year government note, which on Tuesday had climbed above the 7 percent level that had pushed three other nations — Greece, Portugal and Ireland — to request rescue funds.
A gauge of confidence proved better than expected, with the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary index of consumer sentiment for November climbing to 64.2 from 60.9 in October.
