U.S. stocks closed higher Friday as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter to the chairman of the House of Representatives oversight committee, Representative Darrell Issa, that the central bank has more room to support the economy. Bernanke will speak at the Fed's annual symposium next week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In international economic news, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras finished a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday in Berlin. Merkel reiterated her support for Greece to stay in the eurozone, but she said the debt-strapped country needs to meet its reform targets. The dollar rose against the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for October delivery fell 11 cents to $96.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures dropped $1.80 to $1,671 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100.51, or 0.77 percent, to 13,157.97. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 9.05, or 0.65 percent, to 1,411.13. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index moved up 16.39, or 0.54 percent, to 3,069.79.
