U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Friday, helping to push indexes to their best quarterly finish for 2005, as a dip in crude oil prices lifted shares of companies that are heavy users of fuel, including Caterpillar Inc. and DuPont Co, Reuters reported. Procter & Gamble Co. shares rose 2.3 percent to $59.46 on the New York Stock Exchange and helped to lift the Dow. The consumer products company said its acquisition of razor and battery maker Gillette Co. will become effective Saturday following approval by federal regulators. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.92 points, or 0.15 percent, to end at 10,568.70 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.13 points, or 0.09 percent, to finish at 1,228.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 10.47 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 2,151.69. For the third quarter, the Dow ended 2.9 percent higher, the Nasdaq gained 4.6 percent and the S&P 500 rose 3.2 percent as stocks overcame economic fallout from the devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "Wall Street skated through a lot of nasty weather this quarter, but I think there still may be a squall coming through in the fourth quarter as we learn more about damage from the hurricanes from companies that do business in the South," Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co., said. --mor 2355 Local Time 2055 GMT
