Wall St ends higher; posts best week in 2 years

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks started July with a bang on Friday with Wall Street scoring its best week in two years, helped by strong manufacturing data that eased concerns about slowing growth.

For the day, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 168.43 points, or 1.36 percent, to end unofficially at 12,582.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> added 19.03 points, or 1.44 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,339.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shot up 42.51 points, or 1.53 percent, to close unofficially at 2,816.03.

For the week, the Dow rose 5.4 percent, the S&P 500 gainedup 5.6 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 6.2 percent.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)