US stocks : Dow up 1.1 pct
spending also beat forecasts.
"All the data seems to keep pointing to a slowly, steadily improving economy," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 149.21 points, or 1.08 percent, at 14,009.79. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 15.06 points, or 1.01 percent, at 1,513.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 36.97 points, or 1.18 percent, at 3,179.10.
With the day's gains, major equity indexes rose five straight weeks.
More than 600 stocks on the NYSE and the Nasdaq combined hit 52-week highs on Friday, including Google which rose as high as $776.60, before closing at $775.60, up 2.6 percent.
Investors were also attuned to corporate earnings, with a trio of Dow components reporting profits that beat expectations.
Exxon Mobil ended flat at $90.04 after reporting results while Chevron added 1.2 percent to $116.50.
Drugmaker Merck & Co fell 3.3 percent to $41.83 after a cautious 2013 outlook.
Generic drugmaker Perrigo reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit and its shares jumped 4.7 percent to $105.28.
Of the 252 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 69 percent have exceeded expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. That is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above average since 1994.
Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are estimated to have grown 4.4 percent, according to the data, up from a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth
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