US stocks finish week on a high

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.04, or 0.9%, to close at 7,740.03, having declined 101 points on Thursday to a new five-month low. Earlier in the day, blue-chip stocks fell as much as 111 points.

The broader market also finished modestly higher. The Nasdaq composite index gained 2.40, or 0.2%, to 1,305.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.79, or 0.8%, to 828.89.

For the week, however, the Dow fell 1.9%, the Nasdaq dropped 2.4% and the S&P 500 lost 1.5%.

The Labour Department reported the US's unemployment rate rose to 5.8% in February and companies across the economy slashed 308,000 jobs - the steepest one-month slide since November 2001, in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.