U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday, while the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index ended their best first quarter in over a decade. The Dow gained 8.1 percent, the S&P 500 increased 12 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 19 percent during the first quarter of 2012. In U.S. economic news, a report released early Friday showed that personal spending increased 0.8 percent in February, The dollar fell versus the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for May delivery rose 24 cents to $103.02 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures increased $17.10 to $1,669.30 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.22, or 0.50 percent, to 13,212.04. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index increased 5.19, or 0.37 percent, to 1,408.47. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 3.79, or 0.12 percent, to 3,091.57.
