Nasdaq Climbs To Best Closing Level Since Early 2000

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session mixed, stocks moved notably higher over the course of the trading day on Friday. With the gains on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session at its best closing level since early 2000.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside on the day, gold stocks posted particularly strong gains. Reflecting the strength in the gold sector, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index surged up by 2.9 percent.

The strong gains by gold stocks came amid a notable increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for April delivery climbing $15.60 to $1,184.60 an ounce.

Considerable strength also emerged among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in almost eight years.

KB Home (KBH) helped to lead the housing sector higher, with the homebuilder soaring by 8.5 percent after reporting better than expected first quarter results.

Energy stocks also turned in a strong performance amid an increase by the price of crude oil. Crude for May delivery jumped $1.04 to $46.57 a barrel.

Notable strength was also visible among steel, commercial real estate, and computer hardware, reflecting broad based buying interest.

The major averages gave back some ground going into the close but remained firmly positive. The Dow jumped 168.62 points or 0.9 percent to 18,127.65, the Nasdaq climbed 34.04 points or 0.7 percent to 5,026.42 and the S&P 500 advanced 18.79 points or 0.9 percent to 2,108.06.

For the week, the major averages all posted strong gains. The Nasdaq soared by 3.2 percent, while the S&P 500 surged up by 2.7 percent and the Dow jumped by 2.1 percent.