Dow in Positive Territory for 2011

Friday's market rally has taken the Dow Jones Industrial Average to positive territory for the year.

The Dow rallied 105.13 points, or 0.92 percent, to trade at 11,583.26 at 10:08 a.m. ET. The Dow closed at 11,577.51 at the end of 2010.

The S&P 500 is still down about 3 percent for the year and the Nasdaq Composite is flat.

In the past two weeks, global equities have been lifted on hope that Eurozone officials are finally taking steps to address the European debt crisis.

Most recently, Slovakia became the last Eurozone member to approve the proposed expansion of the bailout fund EFSF and this weekend's G20 meeting of finance minister will focus on the Eurozone debt crisis.

Positive news out of the U.S. also drove the markets higher on Friday.

Retail sales for September beat forecasts and rose 1.1 percent, providing further evidence that the economy will not likely go into recession, even though it is only growing at a modest pace.

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) stellar earnings report late Thursday also provided fresh optimism to the third quarter earnings season after the disappointment from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM).

Google shares are currently trading up 6.49 percent.