US stocks surged on Friday after President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured investors they would do what was needed to shelter the economy from market turmoil

Bernanke said the Fed would not bail out investors who had made mistakes, but his comments reinforced the view interest rates will be cut later this month.

The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose by 0.4 per cent in July, double the June increase, and the Chicago PMI, a measure of manufacturing in the Midwest, rose to 53.8 in August from 53.4 in the previous month. And the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for August was revised up to 83.4 from an earlier read of 83.3.

Taking a look at the markets; the Dow Jones Industrials gained 119 to 13,358; the S&P500 was up 16 ending at 1,474, and the Nasdaq was up 31 points to finished at 2,596.