Weak volume underpins modest gains at Wall Street

Weak trading volume underpinned the modest gains at Wall Street stock markets. The S&P 500 finally broke the 2,000 barrier it had threatened since June, and held on to the gain as week closed on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average which set a mark, an intra-day record of 17,153.80 on Tuesday but failed to hold on to that, and finished the week under the July 16 closing record of 17,138.20. meanwhile, tech rich Nasdaq Composite continued its climb out of the dot-com crash 14 years ago, hitting its best level since then on Friday, though still more than 400 points below the pre-crash record. The S&P closed the week up 0.8 per cent at 2,003.37. The Dow rose 0.6 per cent to 17,098.45, and the Nasdaq gained 0.9 per cent to 4,580.27. At that level, the S&P was up 8.4 per cent since the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq 9.7 per cent, while the Dow had gained 3.2 per cent, according to a news agency.