Stocks Close Week on a Strong Note

The major U.S. equity averages jumped on Friday to close out the week on a high note. Optimism over the debt situation in Europe, helped stoke investor sentiment, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 186 points to close at 12,184. The widely watched blue-chip average traded in a range between 11,995 and 12,212. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY added 1.69% to $126.05. Volume was lighter than normal with around 208 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 264.8 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, surged 1.60% to $57.02. Volume was also lighter than normal on the Q's with 55.5 million shares trading hands versus a 3-month daily average over 70 million. Crude oil followed stocks higher. NYMEX crude oil futures added 1.53% to $99.84. ICE Brent contracts climbed 0.69% to $108.86 while the United States Oil Fund ETF USO registered a gain of 1.91% to $38.50. Gold was largely unchanged, with COMEX gold futures gaining just 0.07% to $1,714.60. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD added 0.27% and closed at $166.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. COMEX silver futures surged 2.27% to $32.255. Treasuries fell after rallying on Thursday. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT lost 2.04% to $116.73. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 9.1 basis points to 2.06%. The U.S. Dollar was also weaker on the day, which helped equities. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, fell 0.32% to $22.12. The closely watched EUR/USD pair closed the week at $1.3372.