Markets closed up in New York after a turbulent week that held mounting concerns about the health of Japans people as well as its economy after Fridays catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The Dow Jones industrial average capped the week closing 83 points up at 11,858, the Nasdaq was up 7 points at 2,643 and the S&P 500 was up 5 points at 1,279.

Members in the G-7 collaboration including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of France, Germanys Bundesbank and the Central Bank of Italy found success today in their objective to curb the speculative rise of the yen. The Bank of Japan sold 2 trillion yen in the same effort Friday, pushing the currency back down from its record level on Thursday against the dollar.

The yen fell 2.5% percent Friday to 80.83 against the dollar in New York, according to Bloomberg, easing from yesterdays record since World War II, when it reached 76.25. It fell 3% percent against the euro to 114.29.

Equities were led by bank stocks Friday, after the Feds completion of bank stress tests allowed major banks to renew stock buy-back activity and to re-initiate dividend payments. (See Fed Blessing Allows Banks To Hike Dividends) Shares in dividend-hikers JP Morgan and Wells Fargo closed up 2.7% and 1.5% respectively. Goldman Sachs shares were up 2.7% after it said it would happily buy back the $5 billion in preferred shares from Berkshire Hathaways CEO Warren Buffett, who purchased them in 2008.

Consumer-driven stocks seemed flat at the end of the week. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF closing down 0.8%. Government reports showing gains in both the Producer and Consumer Price indices showed that energy and food costs are causing many consumers to tighten their belts this year. Starbucks said Friday that it raised prices on its packaged coffee as it had anticipated in order to meet rising commodity costs. Shares fell 0.5% to $34.93.

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