Stocks Ended Week on High Note

U.S. stocks ended the holiday-shortened week on a high note on Friday, with the main indexes advancing and posting solid weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 102.69 points, or 0.63%, to 16,433.09 and ended the week with a 2% gain. The S&P 500 rose 8.76 points, or 0.45%, to 1,961.05 and gained 2.1% over the week. The Nasdaq Composite was up 26.09 points, or 0.54%, to 4,822.34 and finished the week 3% higher.

U.S. consumer sentiment hit its lowest in a year in early September and producer prices were flat in August. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index fell to 85.7 early this month, the lowest since September last year, from a reading of 91.9 in August.

The federal government ran up a much smaller budget deficit in August than a year ago, remaining on track to record the smallest annual deficit in eight years. The Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit in August totaled $64.4 billion, a drop of 50 percent from the same month a year ago.

Twelve major banks have reached a $1.865 billion settlement to resolve investor claims that they conspired to fix prices and limit competition in the market for credit default swaps, a lawyer for the investors said on Friday.

Crude futures fell 2 percent or more on Friday after influential Wall Street trader Goldman Sachs cut its outlook on oil. Brent LCOc1, the global benchmark for oil, closed down 75 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $48.59.