Stocks cap best week in 4 months mixed; Dow up 7% for the week

NEW YORK -- Investors are betting that a resurgent rally will continue.

Stocks closed out their best week in four months Friday on a flat note as investors look to another flood of corporate earnings reports next week to provide more signs that the economy is healing.

"We had a big run-up earlier in the week and I think people would just as soon go into the weekend without any major disruptions in their exposures," said Jeff Buetow, managing partner at Innealta Portfolio Advisors. "I think people want the market to go up."

All three major U.S. stock indexes recorded their best week since mid-March, as both the Dow and the S&P 500 snapped four-week losing streaks. This week's gains marked the resumption of the rally from March 9, when the S&P 500 hit a 12-year closing low.

For the week, the Dow rose 7.3%, the S&P 500 gained 7% and the Nasdaq climbed 7.4%.

Solid results from Goldman Sachs Group and Intel spurred buying early in the week. But not all the results Friday were strong, holding the market in place.

On Friday, Bank of America and Citigroup became the latest banks to report big profits but also weakness in their loan portfolios. General Electric beat earnings forecasts, but its revenue came up short.

"The important thing is these earnings results, while not all entirely positive, are beginning to show some signs of stabilization," said Tom Kersting, an analyst at Edward Jones.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 32.12, or 0.4%, to 8,743.94. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.36, or less than 0.1%, to 940.38, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.58, or 0.1%, to 1,886.61.

The number of stocks that fell narrowly outpaced those that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where trading volume came to 1.3 billion shares compared with 1.2 billion traded Thursday.

Financial stocks mostly fell, weighing on the broader market. Investors have been encouraged by strong profits from large banks, but there are still signs that the recession's grip hasn't eased as much as hoped, such as higher loan defaults.