NEW YORK - An unexpectedly strong report on U.S. economic growth pushed stocks higher Friday, capping Wall Street’s best week in three months.
The report, which showed the U.S. economy grew at a healthy 4.1 percent annual pace between July and September, is the latest positive piece of economic data investors have gotten in recent weeks.
“It’s a fantastic signal that we’re getting robust growth, and it looks like it might be accelerating,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for BMO Private Bank in Chicago, which oversees $66 billion.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 42.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,221.14. The index ended the week up 3 percent, its biggest gain since the week of Sept. 13.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.71 points,or 0.5 percent, to 1,818.31, and the Nasdaq composite added 46.61 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,104.74. Both indexes ended the week up about 2.5 percent.
In a sign that investors have a strong appetite for risk, the Russell 2000 index - an index made up mostly of smaller, high-growth companies - closed up nearly 2 percent Friday to 1,146.47.
The bulk of this week’s gains came Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced it was going to pull back on its economic stimulus program. The Fed said it would reduce its bond-buying program to $75 billion a month from $85 billion a month.
Investors cheered the surprise decision, sending the Dow up nearly 300 points Wednesday.
“They had to get out of the way,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist with Prudential Financial. “The more the market obsessed about when the Fed was going to pull back, the more the market couldn’t focus on anything else, like the improving economy.”
Friday’s gross domestic product estimate was the latest report to show unexpected strength in the U.S. economy. The 4.1 percent annualized growth rate is the fastest since 2011. More importantly, most of the increase came from consumer spending, a key part of the U.S. economy.
“The market is feeling somewhat confident,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist in New York at Banyan Partners LLC, which manages about $4.5 billion. “It’s encouraging as an investor and consumer to see GDP get up to these levels. GDP reaching 4 percent makes you feel good about the economy and where we’re headed.”
Data on Friday showed the rate of expansion in the third quarter was faster than previously estimated as consumers stepped up spending on services such as health care and companies invested more insoftware.
“This revised GDP number was really positive,” said Colleen Supran, a principal at San Francisco-based Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough, which manages about $3 billion.
“It helps complete the story on what the Fed did this week and that is, the Fed has some belief that the economy is getting close to being able to stand on its own.”
In other markets, the yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.89 percent from 2.93 percent the day before. Gold rose $10.10, or 0.8 percent, to $1,203.70 an ounce.
Shares of Red Hat, an open-source software developer, jumped $7.10, or 15 percent, to $56.10, one of the biggest increases in the S&P 500 index.
Red Hat’s adjusted earnings came in well ahead of Wall Street’s estimates.
Information for this article was contributed by Lu Wang and Callie Bost of Bloomberg News.
Business, Pages 28 on 12/21/2013