Stocks are surging to finish the week.A little after 2:00 pm ET on Friday, the Dow was up 220 points (1.4%), the S&P 500 was up 20 points (1.1%), and the Nasdaq was up 37 points (+0.8%).
The rally in stocks comes at the end of what has been a choppy week for the market, with the action Wednesday, especially in the bond market, getting pretty volatile.
At current levels, the averages are mixed for the week, with the Nasdaq up about 0.3% and the Dow and S&P 500 down less than 1%.
On Friday morning, we've gotten housing starts data that came in better than expected.
Consumer confidence data from the University of Michigan also beat expectations.
US stocks are taking their lead from stocks in Europe, which are green across the board on Friday, lead by gains in Italy, Spain, and France, where stocks are climbing more than 2%.
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