Stocks end week of overall gains

NEW YORK - Small was beautiful this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 15,000 for the first time Tuesday, then held above that milestone for the next three days.

But an index of small-company stocks put the blue-chip gauge to shame for the week.

On Friday, the Russell 2000 closed the week up 2.2 percent, more than double the Dow's gain.

Small stocks stand a greater chance of surging than those of global companies do if the U.S. economy continues to fare better than those of Europe and Asia.

"GDP growth was 2.5 percent in the first quarter - not spectacular, but better than Europe," said Joseph Tanious, global market strategist of JPMorgan Funds. "Europe is sucking wind."

On Friday, the Dow rose 35.87 points to close at 15,118.49 after flitting between gains and losses most of the day.

The gain of 0.2 percent was trumped by the 0.9 percent advance in the Russell 2000.

The small-company index rose 8.90 points to 975.16. Both indexes, as well as the Standard & Poor's 500, closed at record highs. All three rose for a third straight week.