Mideast Tension Thwarts Rallies; Oil Prices Soar

Stocks and bonds staged powerful rallies Friday as Wall Street cheered surprisingly weak jobs data, but the gains were slashed at the close by worries over Middle East tensions.

Oil prices soared to their highest level in eight months after the United States sent an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf to halt Iranian attacks inside Iraq.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 11.05 points at 8,038.58, for a weekly gain of 116.40 points.

The Dow shot up 117 points in early trading, with stocks and bonds reacting to a weaker-than-expected rise in September’s U.S. payrolls, which was taken as a sign that U.S. inflation continues to be subdued.

As bond prices rose, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell to a 20-month low of 6.16%. But it later rose to close unchanged at 6.29%.

Early gains were erased as Wall Street shifted its focus to reports on the Middle East.

Also weighing down the market was a report of rising sales in September by General Motors that raised concerns that consumer spending isn’t slowing.

In the broad market, advancers beat decliners by a 5-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange in heavy trading.

The day’s gains were enough to push the Nasdaq, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Russell 2,000 index of smaller stocks further into record territory.

The Standard & Poor’s index rose 4.57 points to 965.03 and the NYSE rose 2.26 points to 505.69, both at record highs. The Russell rose 2.58 points to 459.52, its fourth straight record close.

The Nasdaq rose 13.46 points to 1,715.87, buoyed by strength in Cisco Systems, up $2.44 to $78.50, and Microsoft, up $1.75 to $134.94.

Among Friday’s highlights:

* The Dow was paced by J.P. Morgan, which jumped $4.56 to an all-time high of $119.50 on the inflation-friendly jobs report.

* Merger speculation that it would be acquired by Goldman Sachs sent PaineWebber Group up $3.88 to $50.75.

Market Roundup, D4