Stocks Post Gains for the Week

Stocks rallied Friday, capping a second straight week of gains, as the expiration of February options contracts and hopes that war may be averted helped push share prices higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 103.15 points, or 1.3%, at 8,018.11. During the day, the Dow swung 185 points between its high and low.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 11.07 points, or 1.3%, to 848.17 after hitting a low of 831.48 in the session. The technology-laden Nasdaq composite index rose 17.79 points, or 1.3%, to 1,349.02.

Winners outnumbered losers on the New York Stock Exchange by more than 2 to 1 and by 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. Trading was above recent tepid levels.

For the week, the Dow gained 1.4%, while the S&P; 500 rose 1.6% and Nasdaq jumped 3%. Before the recent winning streak, the Dow and the S&P; 500 had lost ground for four straight weeks.

Stocks plunged in early trading Friday on fears that an explosion and fire aboard a fuel barge in New York were terrorist-related. Shares rebounded after investors concluded that it was an accident.

“The market definitely had a sense of relief that it wasn’t a terrorist act, and I think that bolstered equity prices in the afternoon,” said Kevin Marder, chief equity strategist with Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in Los Angeles.

Helping to fuel the rally was the monthly expiration of stock options and stock index options contracts. The expirations can enhance market swings as traders close out their positions, which may involve the simultaneous purchase or sale of the underlying stocks.

The rally was “partly due to options-related trading and partly due to the oversold position we had last week,” said James Park, a trader at Lance Zipper.

The market got a further boost after comments by an Iraqi official that Baghdad was willing to hold talks with the United States.

In an Iraqi television interview, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Iraq was “ready for dialogue with the American administration to build economic ties and cooperation” if it dropped its plans to invade his country.

News of the comments sent the markets higher, said John Licata, senior market strategist at BrokerageAmerica.

In economic news, the government said the consumer price index -- the main U.S. inflation gauge -- advanced 0.3% last month, matching economists’ estimates.

But stocks barely reacted to the price index news, which came a day after data showing wholesale inflation had gained at the sharpest pace in 13 years, which helped drive stocks lower Thursday.

Oil prices, which have surged to 2 1/2-year highs on worries about a possible U.S. war with Iraq, spiked again on news of the New York fire. In New York, the April futures contract for crude rose 84 cents to $35.58 a barrel.

In other trading, bond yields inched higher while gold prices dipped and the dollar strengthened against the yen and euro.

In other highlights:

* The second most actively traded stock on the NYSE was SBC Communications, which ended the session down 57 cents at $20.73. On Thursday, shares of SBC and other phone companies tumbled after federal regulators kept in place rules that force carriers to provide rivals with low-priced access to their networks.

Other telecom stocks rebounded from recent losses. Verizon Communications added 88 cents to $35.64; BellSouth rose 90 cents to $21.50.

* Retailer Gart Sports surged $1.92 to $18.40 one day after saying it would merge with rival Sports Authority, which jumped 75 cents to $6.89.

* Tupperware sank $1.90, or 13%, to $12.89 after the maker of food-storage containers said severe winter weather would hurt its first-quarter sales.

* BEA Systems fell 58 cents to $10.63 after the software firm reported higher quarterly earnings but gave a cautious outlook.

* InterCept was one of Nasdaq’s top percentage gainers, rising 28%, or $1.55, to $7.08 a day after the software company said 2003 earnings would beat analysts’ estimates.

Market Roundup, C4-5