Stocks hit records for third week

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks rose Friday as Wall Street racked up a third week of record-setting gains while considering global monetary easing and as finance ministers started a two-day meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 35.87 points to 15,118.49, its highest close ever.

Also finishing at an all-time high, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 7.03 points to 1,633.70.

“My sense is that we will see some weakness in the very short term, but that weakness will set up the markets for the next push higher, eventually carrying the S&P 500 towards the 1,700 mark by July,” said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates.

Gap Inc. shares gained 5.6 percent after the clothing retailer projected first-quarter profit above expectations.

A steep decline in commodity prices slammed shares of energy and natural-resources companies while the dollar rose to a four-and-a-half-year high against the Japanese yen.

Energy companies including Tesoro Corp. fell as oil prices dropped 35 cents to $96.04 a barrel.

Shares of Hess Corp. declined 2.3 percent after the oil-and-gas company said it would strip CEO John Hess of his chairman title after its annual meeting next week.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 27.41 points to 3,436.58, with the index drawing a lift a day after Nvidia Corp. and Priceline.com Inc. reported quarterly profits that beat estimates.

The benchmark indexes all settled with weekly gains, with the Dow up 1 percent, the S&P 500 ahead 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq composite rising 1.7 percent from last Friday’s close.

The rise has short-sellers scrambling to cover bearish bets this week on high-profile stocks including Tesla Motors Inc. and Groupon Inc.

On the Comex in New York, gold futures retreated $32 to end at $1,436.60 an ounce.