Stocks soared well over 2% on Monday following record-breaking Black Friday numbers the previous week. On Tuesday the Dow and the S&P 500 upheld Monday’s large gains, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ gave back 0.5%, despite a positive consumer spending report. News of global efforts by the world’s banks, in particular making it less expensive for European banks to borrow US currency, sent the Dow skyrocketing almost 500 points, its largest one-day gain since March 2009. On Thursday, a weaker-than-expected weekly jobs report dampened Wall Street spirits a bit, but the lack of a significant loss following the huge Wednesday gain was encouraging. Stocks finished the week on Friday essentially unchanged for the day despite a report that the US unemployment rate fell to a 2 1/2 year low of 8.6%.

This was the strongest week on Wall Street since July 2009, erasing the horrendous Thanksgiving performance of the week before. [table id=39 /]