Wall Street posts biggest quarterly gain in 2016

NEW YORK (AA) – The stock market ended Friday posting its biggest quarterly gain of the year.

The Dow Jones and the S&P were down 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, in September, while Nasdaq had a 1.9 percent increase.

During the third quarter, however, the Dow was up 2.1 percent, the S&P gained 3.3 percent, and the Nasdaq jumped a massive 9.7 percent.

The July-September period was also the best quarter for the three indexes since the October-December period last year.

The Dow ended Friday at 18,308, adding 164 points. The S&P finished at 2,168 with a gain of 17 points. The Nasdaq added 42 points to close at 5,312.

Friday's rally was fueled by banking and energy sectors.

Deutsche Bank shares soared 14 percent after it was reported that the bank and the American government are close to a $5.4 billion settlement over mortgage-backed securities during the 2008 financial crisis.

Shares of Citigroup and Bank of America rose 3.1 and 3.3 percent, respectively, while oil and natural gas company Southwestern Energy Co. had its shares jump by 4.8 percent.