Stocks Book biggest Monthly Gain in Four Years

U.S. stocks ended Friday’s session lower, but the main indexes recorded a fifth straight week of gains and booked the largest monthly gain in four years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 92.26 points, or 0.52%, to 17,663.54 but rose 0.1% over the week. The blue-chip index gained 8.5% over the month. The S&P 500 shed 10.05 points, or 0.48%, to 2,079.36 but were up 0.2% over the week. For the month, the benchmark index gained 8.3%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 20.53 points, or 0.40%, at 5,053.75, but was up 0.4% on the week. Over the month, the tech-heavy index gained 9.4%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday approved rules that pave the way for Main Street investors to take equity stakes in startup businesses raising capital via crowdfunding.

Six of the eight globally systemically important U.S. banks need to raise an additional $120 billion to comply with a regulatory requirement proposed Friday by the Federal Reserve.

Some big U.S. retailers are stepping up efforts to use personal identification numbers, or PINs, with new credit cards embedded with computer chips in a bid to prevent counterfeit card fraud. Broadly, U.S. banks are unprepared or resisting the change.