Oil's losses are airlines' gains
U.S. stocks inched up last week, overcoming concern that credit losses will rise, as data on jobless claims and retail sales signaled the economic recovery is strengthening.</br></br>Delta Air Lines gained 13 percent and US Airways Group surged 9 percent as crude oil extended its decline to eight straight days, the longest losing streak in six years. Gannett soared 28 percent, the most in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, as the publisher forecast more profit than analysts estimated. Alcoa jumped 12 percent as J.P. Morgan Chase boosted its earnings projections for the aluminum producer.</br></br>The S&P 500 added less than 0.1 percent, to close at 1,106.41. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 82.60 points, or 0.8 percent, to 10,471.50. The Nasdaq composite index fell 0.2 percent, to 2,190.31.</br></br>"There is an underpinning of greater confidence than there has been for a long time," said Matthew P. Kaufler, a money manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors, which oversees $392 billion.</br></br>The S&P 500 lost 1.3 percent in the first two days of the week after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy faces "formidable headwinds," while a reduction in Greece's debt rating added to speculation that global credit markets are struggling to recover.