By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks rose Friday, extending a rally that had the Standard & Poor’s 500 hitting its highest level since 2007, as global markets embraced the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.55% climbed 69.67 points, or 0.5%, to 13,609.53, with Bank of America Corp. BAC +3.40% up 3.6% on the day and up nearly 11% this week, bolstered by the Fed’s decision to expand its long-term securities holdings with unlimited purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH +1.26% will replace Kraft Foods Inc. KFT -0.21% in the blue-chip index in the wake of Kraft’s plan to spin off its North American food-store business.
The S&P 500 index SPX +0.64% gained 8.74 points, or 0.5%, to 1,467.83, with energy companies performing best of its 10 industry groups after crude-oil futures CLV2 +1.31% topped $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP +0.93% climbed 26.01 points, or 0.8%, to 3,181.84.
For every stock falling three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 138 million shares traded as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume topped 687 million.
Friday data had U.S. retail sales rising along with the cost of living in August, both reflecting the increased cost of gasoline. Industrial production contracted last month.
