New York  - Despite gloom on the labour and automotive fronts, US stocks gained Friday as Hartford Financial Services Group Inc increased its profit forecast and said it was weathering the credit crisis.

Tech stocks rallied 4.4 per cent on the Nasdaq Composite Index, the largest increase of the three major Wall Street markets.

Stocks fell earlier Friday as US President George W Bush referred for the first time to the recession, as the impasse between the White House and Congress over help for the automotive industry hardened, and as the US unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 per cent in November.

October's unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent.

The Hartford, an icon of the US insurance scene, had shed 92 per cent of its value so far this year. But shares doubled with its upbeat announcement, and all 21 insurance companies in the Standard & Poors 500 Index advanced, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average regained Thursday's losses, adding 259.18 points, or 3.09 per cent, to 8,635.42. The broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 gained 30.85 points, or 3.65 per cent, to 876.07. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index increased 63.75, or 4.41 per cent, to 1,509.31.

The US currency rose Friday to 78.64 euro cents from 78.40 cents on Thursday. The greenback also gained against the Japanese currency to 92.84 yen from 92.2 yen on Thursday.

The Wall Street gains followed a rough day of trading in Europe, where Germany's DAX index shed 4 per cent, London's FTSE 100 shaved off 2.74 per cent and France's CAC lost 5.48 per cent. (dpa)