US stocks rallied late in the day on Friday to take the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 8,000 points and complete a fourth successive week of gains for the first time since the market peaked in October 2007.
The gains came in spite of downbeat economic data as US unemployment hit 8.5 per cent, its highest level since 1983. This was in line with analysts’ estimates, and after an initial fall, the equities market remained resilient.
