Dow and Nasdaq back in positive territory (ext)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Stock market investors finally broke even for 2011, after a choppy trading week.

The Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq rallied Friday, moving both indexes into positive territory for the year. The S&P 500 came close.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) closed up 166 points, or 4.9% for the week, and the S&P 500 (SPX) moved up 21 points Friday, or 6% for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (COMP) was up 38 points, or 7.6% for the week.

"Recent economic data reinforces our belief that the U.S. economy is not in a recession," said Joseph Tanious, market strategist at JPMorgan Chase Asset Management. "The consumer is in fact coming back and starting to spend."

Investors clung onto positive data, and by Friday appeared to have at least temporarily shrugged off fears over the fate of Europe and a drop in profit at JPMorgan Chase, the first major bank to report quarterly earnings.

"I would call this a 'pray trade' today," said Sam Ginzburg, head of capital markets at First New York Securities. "People are hoping there's some good news out of Europe this weekend or some other good news that will reward people for buying."

With looming uncertainty over Europe and several large U.S. banks poised to report paltry earnings, some investors and traders questioned whether this week's rally would be sustainable.

The Commerce Department released September retail sales figures before the opening bell that signaled a more positive reading on the buying patterns of the American consumer.

But investors are still wrestling with whether European leaders will take the appropriate steps to prevent massive fallout from Europe's debt crisis.

As finance ministers from the Group of 20 economies start a two-day meeting in Paris to discuss Europe's debt crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated U.S. support to help Europe address its sovereign debt crisis.

Investors appear to largely ignore the overnight Standard & Poor's downgrade of Spain's credit rating once again on weak growth and banking sector risks.

The dollar fell against the euro and British pound, but gained against the Japanese yen.

Oil for November delivery added $3.08 to $87.31 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery gained $13.50 to $1,682.00 an ounce.