Stocks Close Higher Friday But Down for Week

Everybody's watching the shutdown

Stocks moved higher Friday on Wall Street, but investors remained focused on Washington, where a partial government shutdown and a fast approaching deadline on the nation's borrowing limit have weighed on markets all week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 76.10 points, or 0.5%, to 15,072.58 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 11.84 points, or 0.7%, to 1,690.50. The Nasdaq composite index rose 33.41, or 0.9%, to 3,807.75.

Despite Friday's modest gains, the trend for the last three weeks in the stock market has been lower. The Dow is down nearly 3% since hitting an all-time high on Sept. 18.