/latimes/The Dow jumped 267.01 points, or 2.3%, to 11,808.79, the index’s highest closing level since Aug. 3. The Dow gained 1.4% for the week.

While many investors feared that October would bring another market bust, the opposite has happened: After diving to new one-year lows on Oct. 3, stocks have mostly moved higher since, although trading has remained volatile.

The Dow is up 8.2% this month, and is up 1,153 points, or 10.8%, from the Oct. 3 low.

Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Institutional Trust in San Francisco, said the market has been bolstered by economic reports in recent weeks showing that “the economy is not falling off a cliff.”

September retail sales and housing starts were better than expected, for example, and  new claims for unemployment benefits have declined in recent weeks  after spiking in early September.The biggest unknown hanging over markets worldwide for the last few months has been Europe’s debt mess. This weekend European leaders will begin  six days of meetings aimed at devising a plan to financially support struggling member states and their banks  -- and, hopefully, to once and for all snuff out the fear of a crisis that could fuel a new economic meltdown.....//