New York  - The US automotive industry led Wall Street's broad-based Standard and Poor's 500 Index higher Friday, after President George W Bush announced emergency loans to keep struggling carmakers afloat through the winter.

The government move calmed fears that General Motors and Chrysler could both collapse within days without an interim bail-out.

"The economy's in a severe recession," Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd Chairman Stephen Roach told the Bloomberg financial news agency. "Governments are trying to take over where the market-based private economy has left off, and this is certainly not a sustainable recipe for ongoing economic activity. It's bridge financing."

Gaining stocks outnumbered losers Friday on the New York Stock Exchange by three to two.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25.88 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,579.11. The S&P 500 added 2.6 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 887.88. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index leapt 11.95 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 1,564.32.

For the week, the Dow industrials were off 0.6 per cent. The S&P 500 was up 0.9 per cent for the Monday-Friday period.

The US currency closed at 71.878 euro cents on Thursday. The dollar was little changed against the Japanese currency, closing at 89.395 yen from 89.41 yen on Thursday. (dpa)