US stocks rose on Friday and ended the week in positive territory, led by financial shares buoyed by Fannie Mae's brighter earnings forecast, dpa reported.
The climb came despite a drop in a key consumer confidence index from Reuters and the University of Michigan, while Microsoft's poor earnings report Thursday night led technology stocks lower on the day.
Morgan Stanley projected earnings for Fannie Mae, the largest US mortgage lender, would beat estimates in 2009 as the credit crisis hitting financial institutions in the United States slowly comes to an end.
American Express shares climbed despite the company posting an 11- per-cent fall in first-quarter profits Thursday night. The earnings report, amid a possible recession in the United States, was better than analysts had predicted.
Most energy companies also saw gains as crude oil climbed more than 2 dollars to 118.52 dollars per barrel in New York trading and petrol prices in the United States reached a new record.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.91 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 12,891.86. The broader Standard & Poor 500 Index was up 9.02 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 1,397.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.99 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 2,422.93.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.33 per cent, the S& P 500 0.5 per cent and the Nasdaq 0.8 per cent.
The dollar rose against the euro to 63.98 euro cents from 63.77 euro cents on Thursday, and to 104.43 Japanese yen from 104.24 yen.
Gold rose 30 cents to 889.70 dollars per fine ounce.