Oil's plunge powers rally on Wall Street

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks soared on Friday rounding out their best week in more than three months, as oil plunged below $115 a barrel, easing inflation concerns and improving prospects for business and consumer spending.

The slide in oil prices to their lowest level in three months powered the biggest rally in retailing shares in six years, with Home Depot (HD.N) gaining 7.7 percent.

That eclipsed a steeper-than-expected quarterly loss from mortgage finance company Fannie Mae (FNM.N).

In fact, financials rallied, helped by the view that lower inflation will make it easier for the Federal Reserve to put off interest-rate increases, at a time when the financial sector is still struggling with tighter credit conditions.

"We're at the lowest level in oil prices in months and there is a real feeling that the trend has turned," said Al Kugel, chief investment strategist at Atlantic Trust.

"Lower oil prices are good for businesses and good for consumers, for the inflation picture, and they will improve growth somewhere down the line. So it's 'win win.'"

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 302.89 points, or 2.65 percent, to 11,734.32, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX jumped 30.25 points, or 2.39 percent, to 1,296.32. The Nasdaq Composite Index IXIC gained 58.37 points, or 2.48 percent, to 2,414.10.

For the week, the Dow gained 3.6 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 2.9 percent and the Nasdaq shot up 4.5 percent. It was the best week for all three indexes since April 20.

McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) gave the biggest boost to the Dow after its July sales beat Wall Street's forecasts as its key U.S. market posted its largest gain in five months. Shares of the world's largest fast-food chain rose to an all-time high of $66.24. At the close, McDonald's stock was up 6.2 percent at $65.67 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Concerns about slowing European and Asian economies boosted the dollar and fed worries about lower demand for oil. U.S. front-month crude dropped more than $5 inpost-settlement trading to $114.62 a barrel -- more than 20 percent below its July record high.

Home Depot (HD.N) rose 7.7 percent to $26.37, while an index of retail stocks .RLX rose 6.2 percent. The decline in fuel costs brightens the outlook for sales as it leaves consumers with more money to spend shopping.

General Electric (GE.N) shares rose 3.8 percent to $29.64 while Procter & Gamble (PG.N) gained 3.2 percent to $69.63.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT.O) climbed 2.7 percent to $28.13 and Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) rose 2.8 percent to $24.25, signaling optimism about business spending.

An index of airline stocks .XAL, particularly sensitive to higher fuel costs, surged 8.1 percent.

Apple (AAPL.O) shares rose 3.7 percent to $169.55 and gave the biggest boost to the Nasdaq, after a Credit Suisse analyst said in a note to investors that he sees solid growth for the Apple 3G iPhone "driven notably by its evolving economics -- iPhone now unlocked, greater subsidies leading to lower retail price and no geographic exclusivity."

Shares of MBIA Inc (MBI.N) spurred gains in the financial sector after the world's largest bond insurer posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by an accounting change that turned credit problems into a big gain. MBIA's shares rose 3.5 percent to $8.57.

But shares of Fannie Mae dropped 9.1 percent to $9.05 after the company posted a fourth straight quarterly loss and slashed its dividend by more than 85 percent to conserve capital.

Trading volume was low on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 1.24 billion shares changing hands, below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.9 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.23 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq.

(Additional reporting by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Jan Paschal)