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6A – Daily News – Saturday, February 27, 2010 Wilcox Oaks Golf Club Best Recreational Value in the North State Play where the Pro's play TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY BECOME A MEMBER OF WILCOX OAKS GOLF CLUB GOLF • TENNIS • POOL • FINE DINING • FULL BAR www.WilcoxOaksGolfClub.com Call 530-527-6680 for Membership Information www.WilcoxOaksGolfClub.com Published through a co-sponsorship agreement with the N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY Live Concert Chris & Velva Dilsaver on the birth of your first Baby Boy Kaleb Ray Dilsaver. Chris Good Luck in the desert Come home unharmed Greg & Arleen Morton OPEN: 7 days a week 5:30am - 9pm 259 S.Main St., Red Bluff Not valid with other discounts. 2 EGGS 2 SLICES BACON 2 PANCAKES Offer Good Everyday 5:30-8AM ONLY $ 1 99 Dine in only, No substitutions Coffee 59¢ Stocks end day, month higher NEW YORK — U.S. stocks on Friday capped their best month since November with modest gains, lifted by some improvement in U.S. eco- nomic data, though worries about consumer spending and sovereign debt kept a lid on optimism. The Dow Jones industri- al average rose 4.23 points to 10,325.26, up 2.6 per- cent for the month, its best performance since a 6.5 percent gain in November. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2 percent to 2,238.26, up 4.2 percent for the month. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index ticked up 0.1 percent to 1104.49, up 2.9 percent for the month. All its sectors rose modest- ly Friday except utilities and consumer staples. The month has turned out to be a good one for investors despite rising concerns about sovereign debt and the pace of the global economic recovery. Throughout the month, those fears often alternated with an increasing focus on the U.S. stock market as a safe haven, producing eight triple-digit daily point swings in the Dow. "It's often a case of tak- ing a couple steps forward, a couple steps back right now," said portfolio man- ager Frank Ingarra, of Hen- nessy Funds. "But I think the overall trend is that we're starting to see the markets get back to nor- mal. We're fine for the long term, but in the near term, you can have some rough stretches." On Friday, investors welcomed a report from the Commerce Department saying that GDP grew at a 5.9 percent annual rate in 2009's fourth period, the fastest rate since the third quarter of 2003. A month ago, the department esti- mated that GDP rose at a 5.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter. The new fig- ure was in line with expec- tations of economists sur- veyed by MarketWatch. However, consumers were more modest in their spending last quarter than first thought. Real con- sumer spending rose at a 1.7 percent annual rate, compared to the previously estimated 2 percent gain. The Chicago Business Barometer, formerly known as the Chicago Pur- chasing Managers Index, rose for a fifth consecutive month to its highest level since April 2005, beating analysts' expectations, a report showed. But sales of existing homes in the U.S. plunged for the second straight month in January by 7.2 percent to a 5.05 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said. Economists expected sales to be relatively flat after December's record decline Concerns over policy in the euro zone continued to simmer, with the European Union pushing Greece to adopt new austerity mea- sures to reduce its budget deficit, according to a senior government official. Meanwhile, Greece pushed back plans to sell a mini- mum $2 billion in global bonds in the U.S. and Asia, a finance ministry spokes- woman said. Investors still nursing wounds from the sub- prime-mortgage crisis fear the Greek sovereign- debt issues could be the start of a broader unraveling across the euro zone, said Gary Flam, portfolio manager at Bel Air Investment Advi- sors. "There's a lot of reas- surance being talked about, but the reality is a lot of investors are looking at this as the tip of the iceberg," Flam said. The dollar weakened against both the euro and the yen. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, dropped 0.6 percent. The Dow industrials average was led Friday by a 3.3 percent gain in JPMor- gan Chase Co. after its executives said they didn't foresee a need to make strategic shifts despite changing regulations. Merck Co. rose 0.9 per- cent as health-care stocks climbed after a Washington summit concluded Thurs- day without a deal on legis- lation. Wall Street