NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil and gas companies led the stock market up Friday, helping the Standard & Poor's 500 index notch its second-best week this year.<br />
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With little news to give them direction, traders continued to push indexes higher. That extended a rally from Wednesday when the Federal Reserve said it was in no hurry to hike interest rates.<br />
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"What a very crazy week," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ.<br />
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Benchmark U.S. crude bounced up from recent lows, climbing $2.36 to settle at $56.52 a barrel in New York, as traders bet that a 6-month plunge in prices had gone too far. Chevron, Denbury Resources and other energy companies led nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 to gains.<br />
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Nike's stock dropped $2.24, or 2 percent, to $94.84. The maker of athletic apparel posted results that beat Wall Street's forecasts late Thursday, but a drop in orders from Japan and developing markets in Asia overshadowed an otherwise strong quarter.<br />
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The S&P 500 gained 9.42 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,070.65, bringing its weekly gain to 3.4 percent.<br />
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The Nasdaq composite picked up 16.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,765.38, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,804.80.
