NEW YORK, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks extended record run Friday, with the SP 500 closing above 1,800 points for the first time, boosted by a positive market sentiment.
The SP 500 on Friday gained 8.91 points, or 0.50 percent, to 1, 804.76 points, four days after piercing through the round number of 1,800 points in intraday trading for the first time in history.
The blue-chip Dow finished above 16,000 points for the second time, rising 54.78 points, or 0.34 percent, to 16,064.77 points. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 22.50 points, or 0.57 percent, to 3,991.65 points.
All the three indices of the SP, the Dow and Nasdaq locked gains for the week, increasing 0.4 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Both the SP 500 and Dow rose for the seventh consecutive week.
With no major economic data for the day, investors paid great attention to remarks from Federal Reserve officials. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said Friday that a highly accommodative monetary policy would likely keep in place, even after the Fed starts to scale back its bond buying purchases.
Two Chinese companies made their trading debuts on U.S. stock markets Friday.
The 500.com Limited, a leading online sports lottery service provider in China, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WBAI. Its shares closed at 20.01 dollars per American Depositary Share (ADS) apiece, compared to its initial public offering (IPO) price of 13 dollars.
The other Chinese firm, Sungy Mobile Limited, ended at 13.35 dollars per ADS, up from its IPO price of 11.22 dollars. Its shares were traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol GOMO. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered as a fear gauge of the market, decreased 3.16 percent to end at 12.26.
In other markets, U.S. oil price retreated Friday following Thursday's rally, as investors locked in profits. Light, sweet crude for January delivery lost 60 cents to settle at 94.84 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, Brent crude for January delivery moved up 97 cents to close at 111. 05 dollars a barrel.
Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange edged up Friday, but still notched the biggest weekly loss in two and a half months. The most active gold contract for December delivery increased 0.5 dollar to settle at 1,244.1 dollars per ounce.
The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies Friday, with the greenback retreating against the euro on better-than- expected data from Germany but continuing to rise against the Japanese yen.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3551 dollars from 1.3461 dollars of the previous session, and the U.S. dollar bought 101.31 Japanese yen, higher than 101.09 yen of the previous session.