NEW YORK, Sept 18, (Agencies): Stocks edged higher Friday as investors looked to extend a strong run that has left major indexes up 2 percent for the week. The market rose the first three days of the week on good signs about the economy, but slipped Thursday as investors worried that the rally was overdone. Stocks have risen eight of the past 10 days and indexes like the Dow Jones industrial average touched new highs for the year on Wednesday. Marc Harris, co-head of global research for RBC Capital Markets in New York, said the strength of the rally has surprised many investors because some of the stocks posting the biggest advances are of lower-quality companies with weak balance sheets that investors only months ago feared might go out of business. “Even turkeys are going to fly in a hurricane,” Harris said. “Those lower-quality companies are leading the charge here.” Financial companies and home builders have been among the biggest gainers in the recent run. Many of these companies still face major hurdles with bad debt and the weak housing market.

On Thursday, American Airlines parent AMR Corp surged 19.7 percent after the company said it had secured $2.9 billion in cash and financing. Some investors have been worried about its stability.
Many analysts expect the market’s gains will slow but not stop as investors shift their holdings from industries where the gains have been strong like technology to areas that have lagged.
In midday trading, the Dow rose 27.66, or 0.3 percent, to 9,811.58. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.87, or 0.1 percent, to 1,066.36, while the Nasdaq composite index advanced 1.43, or 0.1 percent, to 2,128.18.
Bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.43 percent from 3.39 percent late Thursday. With little economic news to shape sentiment, investors focused on corporate developments.
Palm Inc posted a wider fiscal first-quarter loss and provided a disappointing sales forecast after the market closed on Thursday. Its shares fell 49 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $13.95.

Advancing stocks narrowly outpaced those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 863.9 million shares compared with 599.6 million shares traded at the same point Thursday.
Trading was somewhat volatile because of the occurrence of a quarterly “quadruple witching,” which marks the simultaneous expiration of four kinds options and futures contracts.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.06, or 0.2 percent, to 614.41.
Meanwhile, Treasury prices dipped Friday as investors were looking to book profits on a recent rally before next week’s debt auctions.
Traders also turned to stocks at the expense of safer government bonds amid signs of an economic recovery.
In late afternoon trading, the price of the benchmark 10-year note fell 23/32 to 101 7/32 and its yield rose to 3.48 percent from 3.39 percent late Thursday. The yield on the 10-year note is closely tied to rates on consumer loans such as mortgages.
The government is set to sell $112 billion of Treasury notes next week, including $43 billion in two-year notes, $40 billion in five-year notes and $29 billion in seven-year notes.

Europe
European shares pulled back on Friday, from an 11-month high reached the previous session, as commodity stocks fell, but Lloyds Banking Group reversed earlier losses on a Goldman Sachs note.
Defensive drug makers, which have lagged the rally, emerged as the day’s top gainers.
The FTSEurofirst 300 of top European shares closed 0.5 percent lower at 1,006.50 points, snapping a three-day winning run but was still up 1.3 percent for the week. The index breached the 1,000 mark on Wednesday for the first time since October 2008.
Heavyweight commodity stocks eased as investors pocketed gains after recent hefty rises. Oil and gas producers BP, Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and StatoilHydro were down 0.2-1.1 percent.
Among miners, BHP Billiton, Xstrata, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Kazakhmys dropped 0.9-2.5 percent. But Lloyds Banking Group erased earlier losses to trade up 0.9 percent after a bullish Goldman note on the UK bank’s plan to quit the British government insurance scheme.
“A downsizing of the GAPS (government asset protection scheme) or a rights issue to pay for (parts of) the fee would be attractive alternatives to our base case scenario of full participation,” Goldman said.
Goldman also raised its profit outlook and price targets on shares of several European banks, citing lower peak provision estimates and stronger net interest income and trading.

UK
Britain’s leading share index logged a sixth straight session of gains on Friday, up 0.2 percent supported by early gains on Wall Street, with a switch into defensives and some profit-taking in commodity issues.
At the close, the FTSE 100 was 8.94 points firmer at 5,172.89, another 12-month closing high, having earlier reached a new 2009 peak intraday of 5,183.88.
“The day is very quiet, with volumes low and options expiries offering the only real direction and, investors just unwinding a few positions ahead of the weekend,” said Arifa Sheikh-Usmani, an equity trader at Spreadex.
Defensive issues found the most support as investors turned back to equities that have lagged the broader market rally and are generally seen as “safe havens”.
Pharmaceuticals, beverages, and tobacco issues were among the top performers. GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Shire added 0.1 to 2.0 percent.
GlaxoSmithKline is in talks to buy a 5 percent stake in Indian drug maker Dr Reddy’s in a deal likely to be valued at $150 million, the Economic Times reported on Friday, citing sources privy to the development.
Drinks maker Diageo and brewer SABMiller rose 1.4 and 0.6 percent, respectively, with SABMiller supported by a UBS upgrade to “buy”.

Asia
Asian markets were mostly lower Friday after setting new highs for the year, with Tokyo shares down nearly 1 percent amid news a major Japanese consumer finance firm was unable to pay its debts.
Oil slid below $72 on doubts about the strength of economic recovery and Chinese shares dived more than 3 percent though analysts said the fall was largely profit-taking after big gains.
The jolt from Japan, which shows the financial sector remains shaky despite unprecedented government support, added to worries that markets have overestimated the strength of any economic recovery.
Many Asian stock benchmarks hit new highs for the year Thursday after stronger-than-expected US industrial production for August suggested improving demand from the world’s biggest economy for Asia’s mainstay exports.
“The markets have shot up a lot and the prices are getting too high. We may have room for more g

ains but you have to be careful,” said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong. “The economic fundamentals still aren’t so good, and I think we may be getting near the last uptick in this rally.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 73.26, or 0.7 percent, at 10,370.54 as financial stocks took a hit after consumer lender Aiful Corp. said it will ask its creditors to accept delays in repayment of $3.1 billion in debts. Consumer finance firms fund much of their high-interest lending to consumers by borrowing from banks and other institutions at lower rates.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 145.06, or 0.7 percent, to 21,623.45 and China’s Shanghai index lost 97.59, or 3.2 percent, to 2,962.67. Australia’s market shed 0.5 percent. Bucking the trend, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3 percent to 1,699.71.
In Tokyo trade, Aiful slumped 27.2 percent. Rival consumer financing firm Takefuji Corp plunged 9.5 percent.
Wall Street lost ground on Thursday despite a surprise drop in unemployment claims.

Oil
Oil prices slipped on Friday as a retrenchment in investor risk appetite pulled money out of commodities and into the US dollar.
US crude for October delivery fell 26 cents to $72.21 a barrel by 1645 GMT, after touching as low as $71.27 in earlier trade. London Brent fell 10 cents to $71.45.
“It’s by and large dollar related today,” said oil trader Rob Montefusco at Sucden Financial in London.
The ICE Futures US dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback versus a basket of six major currencies, rose on Friday from a near one-year low touched on Thursday, as investors covered short positions and softer equities in Europe and Asia cooled risk appetite.
Oil was also under pressure from a government report this week showing growth in US refined fuel inventories, with distillates at their highest since 1983.

Gas
Natural gas prices have moved in one direction this summer, down, and the vast caverns that hold it are dangerously close to reaching capacity, yet since the beginning of the month prices have spiked 44 percent.
A record number of futures contracts were snapped up this week, most likely because buyers didn’t see prices for natural gas getting much cheaper.
The spike would certainly be a troubling sign for people who use natural gas to heat their homes, save for the fact that even with the huge run this week, prices are still about a third of they were last year.
It’s extremely cheap and no one expects that to change anytime soon.
“It’s going to be very good winter for natural gas customers,” analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.
Natural gas for October delivery added 16.4 cents Friday to $3.622 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Currencies
The out of favour dollar slipped back on Friday after sharp early gains made against the euro as investors took profits on the European single currency’s recent advance, dealers said. They said all the markets have had a strong week, becoming increasingly confident that the global economy is on the mend, even if there remain good reasons for caution.
As the tone becomes more positive, investors are branching out into riskier assets and so away from the dollar and its safe-haven qualities, they said, adding that the US unit will likely remain under pressure for some time.
US interest rates are very low and sentiment on the dollar is unlikely to change until the figures begin to show the US economy returning to growth, pointing to a move by the Federal Reserve to hike lending costs, they said.
In late Friday London trade, the European single currency was at $1.4723, off an early low of $1.4679 but still down from $1.4740 in New York late Thursday when it had struck £1.4767 dollars — the highest level in almost a year.

The dollar was firmer at 91.28 yen from 91.03 yen while the euro was at 134.27 yen from 134.17 yen. The dollar hit a seven-month low of 90.16 yen on Wednesday after Japan’s new finance minister suggested the authorities would not intervene on the markets to weaken the rising yen.
The British pound meanwhile fell sharply after news that the country’s public finances plunged further into the red in August, striking a record deficit for the month under the weight of a deep recession.
In London on Friday, the euro was changing hands at $1.4723 against $1.4740 late on Thursday, at 134.27 yen (134.17), £0.9036 (0.8960) and 1.5142 Swiss francs (1.5159).
The dollar stood at 91.28 yen (91.03) and 1.0294 Swiss francs (1.0283).
The pound was at $1.6279 (1.6445).
Gold
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold eased to $1,012 an ounce from $1,018.50 an ounce late on Thursday.