Election Section

NEW YORK — Wall Street ended its best two weeks of the year Friday with profit-taking from a spectacular rally that included triple-digit gains in the Dow Jones industrials and Nasdaq composite index. 

Analysts weren’t alarmed by the losses, which amounted to 1 percent or less on each of the three major indexes. 

“Investors should be thrilled if the market retreats and gives up only half of the gains we saw in the last few days,” said John Forelli, portfolio manager at Independence Investment LLC.  

All five stocks are Dow components. The market began its recovery two weeks ago, with a 402-point gain in the Dow. Despite some pullbacks, it slowly gained momentum that sharply accelerated Wednesday when the Federal Reserve unexpectedly lowered interest rates for a fourth time this year. 

Wall Street’s big indicators are still registering losses for the year, but the Dow nonetheless has surged about 13 percent since reaching its lowest close for the year. 

— The Associated Press 

, 9,389.48, on March 22. The Nasdaq is up 32 percent since it closed at a low of 1,638.80 on April 4, and the S&P 500 has gained nearly 13 percent since its low close of 1,103.25 that same day. 

Analysts say the market’s steady progress, combined with its ability so far to keep most of its gains, suggests that the worst may be over. They warn more declines are likely, and that more companies might have earnings disappointments, but the growing confidence about 2002 has buyers returning to the market. 

For example, investors shrugged off Cisco Systems’ warning Tuesday that its fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue would fall short of forecasts because of slowing demand. The stock ended the week at $19.15, up $1.17 or 6.5 percent, lifted by the Fed’s rate cut and earnings results from other tech leaders that were disappointing but not as bad as many feared. 

“Investors are leaping out on the faith that the economy is going to correct itself and you’re going to have a better 2002 even though the near-term earnings and other fundamentals are terrible,” said Jon Brorson, director of equities at Northern Trust. “People are afraid they’ll miss out if they don’t buy now.” 

Declining issues led advancers nearly 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.57 billion shares, compared with 1.75 billion Thursday. 

The Russell 2000 fell 5.69 to 466.71, ending the week up 11.69 or 2.6 percent. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.7 percent. Germany’s DAX index slid 0.9 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 rose 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was down 0.6 percent.