WALL STREET WRAP >>> Dow And Oil Rally To '09 High

The day ends with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) showing a gain of more than 155 points.
The S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (COMP) closed with gains in excess of 1%. Housing and oil services led. The iShares Treasury Bond (TLT) remained the laggard.
Despite the fact that the week started with 186-point loss, the Dow gained 185 points on the week. This 2% bump was more or less matched by the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

A broad commodities and basic-materials rally combined with a report that showed housing sales sharply accelerated last month, helped push stocks to new 2009 highs on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 155.91 points, or 1.67%, to 9505.96, the Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 18.76 points, or 1.86%, to 1026.13 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 31.68 points, or 1.59%, to 2020.90.

Wall Street was fueled by a big rally in the crude oil and the metals markets, with oil striking a fresh 2009 high earlier in the session, after a positive German and French manufacturing survey helped lift the euro higher versus the dollar. The dollar fell to a fresh year low against the Swiss franc as well.

I ended last week talking about the potential for "wiggle room to the downside" and on Monday it looked like we had every technical reason to dip. However, as noted earlier, the only "dip" in my "dip scenario" was me.

The daily charts below show the breakout above the recent peaks. My takeaway here is that I underestimated how much dry powder the bulls had. That is the point I will be pondering until Monday. Have a great weekend .........

Oil prices hit 10-month high as optimism grows
Oil prices jumped Friday to a new high for the year after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the U.S. economy is nearing a recovery and other economic data backed him up.
Benchmark crude for October delivery rose 98 cents to settle at $73.89. After Bernanke spoke at an annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, prices briefly neared $75.

Oil started climbing early in the morning after financial information company Markit said its composite purchasing managers' index showed the European economy was stabilizing.

"If Europe's coming out of recession, the euro could get even stronger," analyst Phil Flynn said. "That means more demand for oil."

And the dollar did fall against the euro to end the week, effectively making dollar-based oil cheaper across the globe. That created its own momentum and drew a lot of investor money into crude, meaning the price for gasoline and other fuels will likely move up as well.

Crude this year has tended to jump even marginally good economic news. It has been slightly more than a year since a barrel of crude soared close to $150 per barrel and few people believe that at some point, demand for energy will not rebound strongly.

In London, Brent prices rose 86 cents to settle at $74.19 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.