Major US equity markets closed higher this week as investors showed a willingness to put fears of a double dip recession aside. All three major US indexes were up for the week.

Crude oil futures popped sharply higher for the week, gaining nearly $5 a barrel and trading for $75.70 a barrel late on Friday afternoon.

Gold futures were higher on Friday, jumping nearly $17 an ounce to $1,212. Gold was selling for $1,209 an ounce on late Friday afternoon.

On the economic front, the Institute for Supply Management’s US non-manufacturing index for June was released on Tuesday, coming in at 53.8. This was below the consensus index level of 55 for June.

On Thursday, initial jobless claims for the week of July 3rd were 454,000, marginally lower than expectations of 465,000 in new unemployment claims.

California state Controller John Chiang was instructed to cut the pay of nearly 200,000 state government workers in the state to comply with an order by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state bureaucrats will be paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 until a budget is passed.

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The state’s fiscal year started on July 1.

Goldman Sachs ( GS – news – people ) strategy group is recommending that its high net worth clients stay fully invested, despite bearish economic fundamentals and a recent correction in equity markets. Goldman’s strategy group was cited in a report titled ‘Double Dip or Double Up?’ that, “Even slow 1-2 percent GDP expansion would be sufficient to generate positive earnings growth from current levels . . . We believe that clients should continue to use market weakness to build toward or maintain their strategic equity allocation.”

On the earnings front, Family Dollar posted profits of 77 cents per share, barely beating the consensus analyst estimate of 76 cents.

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