AP - Stocks closed mostly higher Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrials' to their best week in four years after a surprise jump in home sales eased concern that frailty in the housing market will hurt economic growth.

Reuters - U.S. blue chips inched up on Friday, capping a rally in which the S&P 500 logged its biggest weekly gain since 2003 on speculation that the Federal Reserve's next move will be an interest rate cut.

AP - Sales of existing homes rose in February by the largest amount in nearly three years, but worsening troubles in subprime mortgages were viewed as a roadblock to a full-fledged rebound. The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that existing home sales climbed 3.9 percent last month, pushed up by a milder-than-normal winter that boosted sales in areas of the country such as the Northeast.

Reuters - The New York Federal Reserve president said on Friday that turbulence in the U.S. market for high-risk mortgages is unlikely to have a lasting effect on credit markets, but, in a sign of spreading woes, the subprime mortgage unit of General Electric Co. laid off more employees.

Reuters - Blackstone's pending $4-billion initial public offering may be tempting for individual investors, but shareholders beware: the firm's growth will be tough to maintain, and its business difficult to grasp, IPO analysts said on Friday.