Stocks higher despite weak dollar, records in gold, oil

— -- Stocks rose Thursday in volatile trading even after a sagging dollar pushed gold futures prices to a record $1,001 an ounce and crude oil to $111 a barrel.

The advance came after Standard & Poor's predicted financial companies are nearing the end of the massive asset write-downs that have devastated the stock and credit markets.

The S&P projection gave investors some hope that the seemingly unrelenting losses from the mortgage and credit crisis might indeed be bottoming out. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it estimates write-downs of subprime asset-backed securities could reach $285 billion globally, up from its previous projection of $265 billion, but added that "the end of write-downs is now in sight for large financial institutions."

"The S&P comment was a positive for the market because investors were relieved to think that the subprime problem may be behind us," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards.

Wall Street clearly remains anxious, however. On Tuesday, the stock market launched its largest rally in more than five years after the Federal Reserve said it would loan out $200 billion in Treasurys to help alleviate investment banks' financial bind. But since then, stocks have been extremely volatile.

Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, said that while she is a market bull, it's possible investors extrapolated a bit too much good news from the S&P report. "I would rather see fewer foreclosures and housing prices bottoming out to decide that the credit crisis is drawing to a close," she said.

The S&P's note arrived on the heels of a spate of troubling news. A Carlyle Group fund warned late Wednesday it expects creditors will seize all the fund's remaining assets after unsuccessful negotiations to prevent its liquidation. Meanwhile, the government reported Thursday an unexpected dip in retail sales, and a research firm said nearly 60% more U.S. homes faced foreclosure in February than in the same month last year.