A Week's Worth

• Led by tech stocks and General Motors,the Dow Jones Industrial Average was back at the 11000 threshold as trading closed Friday at 10959.31. The week's 2.3 percent growth spurt pushed share prices to levels last seen in June 2001.

• The January barometer. No, it doesn't provide clues to the weather. It's an indicator that Wall Street types study to predict if the market will rise or fall for the year. Standard & Poor's weekly Outlook newsletter says that what happened in January has accurately forecast a year's performance 77 percent of the time since World War II. But it's been off target as often as it has been right since 2000.

• They've already climbed the corporate ladder, so you'd probably guess that senior executives are as able as they need to be, right? Not according to the findings of a new survey by Accountemps, the staffing agency. It asked managers, "If you were to make a New Year's resolution, what would it be?" The No. 1 answer: acquire a new skill.

• You've got a choice: Pay for that next purchase with a credit or debit card. Which to use? If you're like most consumers tracked by Visa during the post-Christmas shopping week, you'll go with the debit card. While both showed growth, Visa reports that debit cards were whipped out 2.5 times more often.