June 03, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1428

NEW YORK, June 2: Wall Street celebrated a bumper week on Friday that left the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard and Poor's 500 stock indexes basking at record highs.

The Dow has notched up a series of record highs in recent weeks, but it took the S&P until Wednesday to smash its prior all-time record high struck during the tech boom of 2000.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue chips gained a strong 1.19 per cent on the week to end at 13,668.11 points.

The broad-market S&P 500 leapt 1.36 per cent for the week to 1,536.34.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite jumped 2.22 per cent to close the week at 2,613.92.

Stocks soared higher during the week on a wave of fresh merger and takeover activity and as the foreshortened week's economic news raised hopes of improved future growth ahead.

One of week's larger deals saw Lehman Brothers and property firm Tishman Speyer team up for an approved $22.2-billion acquisition of Archstone Smith, which owns a big portfolio of apartment complexes.In another deal unveiled Wednesday, technology products retailer CDW agreed to a 7.3-billion-dollar buyyout from private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.

And the family that controls Dow Jones said Thursday it would meet with News Corp to discuss its five-billion-dollar offer for the storied news group.

Some analysts expect the deal-making frenzy to ebb in coming weeks however, especially with the onset of summer when market activity traditionally slows. —AFP