6:57 am - US Recovery on the way ???

By Rob Curran Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Not even a $75-billion shortfall in bank capital and half a million job losses could deter stock buyerswhen the whiff of economic recovery was in the air.Major blue-chip indexes rose Friday to complete one of their best weeks in a two-month rally and the broadStandard & Poor's 500 finished within a hair's breadth of its highest mark of the year. The Dow JonesIndustrial Average rose 164.80 points, or 1.96%, to 8574.65, bringing its gains for the week to 4.4%,the biggest advance since the week ended March 27.

The broad Standard & Poor's 500 rose 21.84, or 2.41%,to 929.23, bringing its gains for the week to 5.9%. The S&P 500 is now up 2.9% for the year, and is within6 points of the closing peak of 935. The Nasdaq Composite rose 22.76, or 1.33%, to 1739.00 for its ninthconsecutive week of gains.Investors have detected an inflection point for the economy, and read the capital shortages exposed bythe government's stress tests as manageable in that environment. Bank stocks led the rally even afterthe government said late Thursday that 10 of 19 banks need a total of $74.6 billion in additional capitalfollowing a round of stress tests. The latest data to suggest the recession may be on the wane was theApril payrolls report, which showed fewer jobs were lost last month than in March.

"The most relevant factor is that there is a recovery under way, which basically overwhelms any otherpotential problems," said Lorenzo Di Mattia, manager of hedge fund Sibilla Global Fund. "Were we goingto have two more quarters of [-6%] in the GDP, there's no way the banks could handle that. Since we arenot going to have that, then they are fine."

"The system is leveraged...both ways," Di Mattia said. "So, in that regard, it seems like we are going to get everything but stability."Bank of America rose 66 cents, or 4.9%, to 14.17, bringing its gains to 63% on the week. The bank needsto raise nearly $34 billion after a government review of its assets and operations and filed for a follow-onYou can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.-0-Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.