NEW YORK — U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, lifting the Nasdaq Composite Index back into the black for the week, after the European Central Bank said it would take further steps to ease loan collateral for banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 67.21 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,640.78. It lost 1 percent for the week, after posting gains for the past two.
The market rallied “on short-covering from the sell-off from (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke’s disappointing game Twister instead of a full blown QE3, some relief that the bank downgrades didn’t spell out disaster and news from Europe that it is loosening their collateral requirements,” said Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors.
Down 0.6 percent on the week, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 9.51 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,335.02 for the session, with tech stocks leading the gains that included all 10 of its industry groups.
Morgan Stanley rose 1.3 percent after Moody’s cut its rating by two notches, less than the three threatened. Also rising were Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., both of which were cut by Moody’s to within two notches of junk.
Up 0.7 percent for the week, the Nasdaq advanced 33.33 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,892.42.
Facebook Inc. rose 3.8 percent after Nomura Equity Research advised buying shares of the social-networking company.
Commodities also recovered a piece of the prior day’s steep slide, with oil bouncing off an eight-month low. Crude futures rose $1.56, or 2 percent, to $79.76 a barrel, down 5.4 percent for the week. Gold gained $1.40, or 0.1 percent, to end at $1,566.90 an ounce, down 3.8 percent from the week-ago close.
The European Central Bank said Friday it would ease rules on the collateral banks can offer for central-bank funds. Bloomberg News cited a person familiar with the plan as saying that Spain was considering making investors holding bank equity and debt to take losses in a restructuring.
Spain’s finance minister confirmed the government would ask for aid for its banks Monday.
