Oil price stability helps lift stocks

Stocks rose Friday as oil prices stabilized following a recent jump. The escalating turmoil in Libya still left major indexes down about 2 percent for the week.

Oil prices settled at $97.88, down from a high of $103 Thursday but still up 13 percent over the past week. Oil prices have been rising, sending stocks lower, as concerns rose that violence would spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, affecting oil production for big OPEC producers like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Those concerns eased late Thursday after the International Energy Agency said the impact was far less than analysts had estimated and that any shortfall could be easily made up by tapping oil reserves in other countries.

Boeing Co. rose 2.2 percent after the Air Force on Thursday awarded the company a $35-billion contract, one of the military's largest ever, for nearly 200 airborne refueling tankers.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61.95 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,130.45. It was the first rise for the index after three days of losses.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.78, or 1.1 percent, to 1,319.88. The Nasdaq composite rose 43.15, or 1.6 percent, to 2,781.05. All three indexes were still down for the week.