Dow up 93; stocks enjoy their best week of 2012

Updated: 6:42 p.m. ET

Stocks shrugged off worries about China, Spain and Europe today and rallied solidly to their best weekly gains of the year.

In fact, the market was earned back all of its losses of a week ago, when stocks tumbled on a weak jobs report and the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) lost all of their gains for 2012. With today's gains, the Dow is back to a 2.8% gain for the year.

The rally was a surprise after markets fell in Asia and Europe after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wouldn't tell the Joint Economic Committee Thursday when or if the Fed was going to try a new round of stimulus for the struggling economy.

The risks to the market remain, however. Spain is expected to ask the European Union for emergency aid on Saturday to prevent a run on its banks, Reuters reported today. It is the fourth and largest country in Europe to seek help since the eurozone's debt crisis began. And the hope is that a deal will get done before June 17, when Greece will try again to elect a new government. There remain grave concerns that Europe is sinking into a major recession that could affect economies around the world.

The Dow closed up up 93 points to 12,554. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) gained 11 points to 1,326, and the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) had gained 27 points to 2,858.

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The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX), heavily influenced by Apple (AAPL), jumped 24 points to 2,559. Apple had gained $8.60 to $580.32, adding roughly 5 points to the index.

For the week, the Dow gained 3.6%, with the S&P 500 up 3.7% and the Nasdaq up 4%. The gains for the Dow and S&P 500 were the best since the week of Dec. 19. The Nasdaq's gain was its best since the week of Nov. 28.

In addition to the Dow's 2.8% gain for the year, the S&P 500 is up 5.4%, with the Nasdaq up 9.7%.

Facebook (FB) was up 79 cents to $27.10 after market-research firm ComScore said markets can use the website to boost sales.

Facebook, of course, had a troubled initial public offering that's caused no end of trouble for Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ), the parent of the Nasdaq trading platform.

The botched trades have proved quite expensive. CNBC reported today that UBS Financial Services (UBS) was looking at losses of perhaps $350 million from the Facebook debacle. UBS is preparing to sue the big investment house, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo reported.

UBS was off 6 cents to $11.61 in New York. Nasdaq OMX was up 1 cent to $22.12.

Nasdaq did get one bit of good news. Dow component Kraft Foods (KFT) is moving its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq on June 26. And, once Kraft spins off its snacks business into Mondelez International, both will remain on Nasdaq using the tickers KRFT and MDLZ, respectively.

Markets for the week
			6/8/2012			6/1/2012			% chg.			YTD chg.
Dow Industrials			12,554.20			12,118.57			3.59%			2.76%
S&P 500			1,325.66			1,278.04			3.73%			5.41%
Nasdaq			2,858.42			2,747.48			4.04%			9.72%
Russell 2000			769.09			737.42			4.29%			3.80%
Crude oil			$84.10			$83.23			1.05%			-14.90%
(per barrel)			0.00			0.00			0.00%			0.00%
U.S. Dollar Index			82.56			82.97			-0.50%			2.53%
10-yr. Treasury			1.64%			1.47%			11.59%			-12.51%
Gold			$1,591.40			1,622.10			-1.89%			1.57%

Wal-Mart leads the Dow
Leading the Dow was Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), up $2.35 to $68.22, a 12-year high, thanks to a report that its Latin American subsidiary saw sales rise 10.2% in May compared with a year ago. Wal-Mart's gain added more nearly 18 points to the blue-chip index.

Following Wal-Mart were JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Home Depot (HD).

McDonald's (MCD) and Alcoa (AA) were the laggards.

McDonald's fell 63 cents to $87.75 after warning that economic volatility around the world and rising costs may drag on its second-quarter earnings. The shares had dropped to as low as $85.92.

Twenty-six of the 30 Dow stocks were higher. In addition, 408 S&P 500 stocks were higher, led by Sprint Nextel (S), Expedia (EXPD) and Masco (MAS). The laggards were natural-gas producer Exelon (EXC), a victim of lower natural gas prices, and U.S. Steel (X).

Meanwhile, 81 Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher, led by Expedia and Sears Holdings (SHLD). Apple, Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC) Qualcomm (QCOM), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Google (GOOG) were responsible for 14.9 points of the index's gain. (Microsoft publishes MSN Money.)

Energy prices -- New York close
			Fri.			Thur.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$84.10			$84.82			-2.81%			-14.90%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$2.6721			$2.6671			-1.15%			-8.31%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$2.2990			$2.2740			-5.08%			-23.08%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.6852			$2.6850			-1.38%			1.05%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$99.47			$99.93			-2.36%			-7.37%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.5550			$3.5600			-1.80%			8.52%
(per gallon; AAA)

Two Chesapeake directors get thumbs-down votes from shareholders
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) was having an amazing annual meeting, and shares were up 51 cents to $18.36. Shareholders overwhelmingly voted against two directors standing for re-election.

Only 27% of shareholder votes were cast in favor of board member Richard Davidson, the former CEO of Union Pacific (UNP). V. Burns Hargis, president of Oklahoma State University, received 26.4% of votes cast.

Both men tendered their resignations, the company said, under a measure that drew 97.1% of votes, requiring directors who don't receive a majority of votes cast to offer to step down.

In recent weeks, Chesapeake has faced extreme scrutiny and a plunging share price as low natural-gas prices and high debt levels have generated a liquidity crisis. Earlier this week, it agreed to shuffle its board, allowing two large shareholders, Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, to appoint a majority of the board members.

Crude oil briefly falls below $83
Crude oil (-CL) dropped below $83 a barrel in New York for the first time since early October before rebounding this afternoon. But oil rebounded in the afternoon, settling at $84.10 a barrel, down 72 cents. Brent, the benchmark North Sea crude, was off 24 cents to $99.69 a barrel.

Natural gas (-NG) fell to the lowest levels since April 20, settling at $2.299 per million British thermal units.

The average retail price of gasoline fell to $3.555 a gallon from $3.56 on Thursday, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. For the week, the price is down 1.6%. It's also down 9.7% from its April peak of $3.936 a gallon.

Gold (-GC) rebounded this afternoon, settling up $3.40 to $1,591.40 an ounce. Copper (-HG), however, fell 8.55 cents to $3.2985 a pound. Silver (-SI) slipped 5.8 cents to $28.471 an ounce.

Interest rates were lower as well, with the 10-year Treasury yield dropping to 1.637% from Thursday's 1.654%. The yield had actually dropped to as low as 1.562%.

The euro was at $1.25125, down slightly against the dollar after dropping to as low as $1.24471.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Fri.			Thur.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0800%			0.080%			14.29%			700.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.712%			0.715%			6.11%			-14.22%
10-year Treasury note			1.637%			1.654%			3.54%			-12.51%
30-year Treasury bond			2.765%			2.757%			3.48%			-4.29%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			82.562			82.106			-0.68%			2.53%
British pound			1.5427			1.5540			0.09%			-0.71%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.648			£0.643			-0.09%			0.71%
Euro in dollars			$1.25			$1.26			0.85%			-3.79%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.802			€ 0.796			-0.84%			3.94%
U.S. $ in yen			79.55			79.67			1.27%			3.18%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.40			6.36			0.23%			1.11%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.969			$0.973			0.07%			-1.22%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.033			$1.027			-0.07%			1.23%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,591.40			$1,588.00			1.74%			1.57%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.285			$3.371			-2.39%			-4.39%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$28.4710			$28.5290			2.57%			1.99%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.3025			$6.4175			-2.10%			-3.45%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$5.9800			$5.940			7.70%			-7.50%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.6872			0.7129			-4.36%			-25.04%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.574			1.584			-3.41%			-31.46%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$84.10			$84.82			-2.81%			-14.90%
(per barrel)