China, Bernanke send S&P to 3-month high
U.S. stocks rose last week, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to the biggest weekly advance since March, as China's exports jumped the most in six years, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the economic recovery is intact, and commodity prices rallied.</br></br>Alcoa, DuPont and Dow Chemical helped lead raw-material producers higher as reports showed the global economy is strengthening. A measure of apartment developers, hotel operators and warehouse owners rallied the most in seven weeks after Fitch Ratings boosted its outlook on the industry. Bristol-Myers Squibb soared 12 percent, the biggest gain in 15 months, after studies showed two of its cancer drugs worked better than current therapies.</br></br>The S&P 500 gained 2.5 percent for the week to 1,091.60 as its 10 main industries rose. The Dow Jones industrial average had its first gain in four weeks, rising 2.8 percent to 10,211.07. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 1.1 percent to 2243.60.</br></br>"The bear is running out of fuel," said Don Hays, who manages more than $1 billion at Hays Advisory Group. "We're virtually on the threshold of what you only get at the bottom of major bear markets. It's one of those amazing times to buy stocks."</br></br>Reports last week showed property prices in China rose at a near-record pace and exports surged 48.5 percent in May, signaling Europe's crisis hasn't slowed the world's fastest-growing major economy.