Jobs report pushes Dow above 14,000
The blue-chip index hits its highest level since October 2007. The S&P 500 also reaches a 5-year high. Employers add 157,000 jobs in January; November and December gains were better than thought. The unemployment rate ticks up to 7.9%.
Stocks took off on Friday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) closed above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007 as investors cheered a decent jobs report and improvements in U.S. manufacturing and consumer confidence.
The blue chips topped 14,000 shortly after 10 a.m. The index fell back below 14,000 several times during the day. But late buying pushed the Dow to close at 14,010, a 148-point gain. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) hit a five-year high of 1,513, up 15 points.
The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) had gained 37 points to 3,179, its highest level in 12 years.
The rally was the biggest for stocks since Jan. 2, when the Dow soared 308 points. The blue chips are about 150 points under their 2007 closing high of 14,165. The S&P 500 is 52 points below its 2007 closing high.
The market rally was set off by Friday's jobs report, which estimated that employers added 157,000 jobs in January, although the unemployment rate moved up slightly to 7.9% from 7.8% in December. Revisions showed that job gains in November and December were stronger than originally thought.
The market gains put the Dow up 6.9% for the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.1%. The Nasdaq is up 5.2%. The Dow finished January up 5.8%, its best January since 1994. The S&P 500's 5% gain was its best for a January since 1997.
Twenty-eight of the 30 Dow stocks were higher, led by Bank of America (BAC) and United Technologies (UTX). The laggards were Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK).
Google (GOOG) hit a new high of $776.73 before closing at $775.60, a new closing high. Other stocks hitting all-time highs included 3M (MMM), Procter & Gamble (PG), J.M. Smucker (SJM) and Tupperware (TUP).
Apple (AAPL) shares did not participate in the rally, falling $1.76 to $453.73.
Crude oil climbed on news of a bombing outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey, as well as an explosion at the headquarters of Pemex, the state-owned oil company, in Mexico City. Crude oil in New York settled up 28 cents to $97.85 a barrel. Brent crude, the North Sea benchmark, was up $1.08 to $116.63.
A solid market rally became a big rally after when the Institute for Supply Management said its January index of manufacturing rose to 53.1 from 50.7 in December. Analysts had expected a reading of 50.7.
And the University of Michigan's second reading of consumer sentiment showed a rebound to 73.8 from 71.3. Economists had expected the index to reach only 71.5.
Auto sales for January were strong. Chrysler reported a 16% gain. Ford Motor (F) sales were up 22%, and General Motors (GM) sales added 22%. Toyota (TM) said its January sales jumped 26%.
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The economy we need to advance the middle class and to offer a future to our children, is one that is inclusive and that broadly engages people and challenges them to work together toward their mutual benefit. Sadly, the notion of a national priority that favors the middle class is so far afield of what we know, I hardly think it could find support. In the 1960's, the pinnacle of the middle class in this country, the top tax rate was 2X what it is now. Today the notion that we would do anything other than make the rich richer is inconceivable. To be different we would have to learn to think differently and that seems unlikely.
Ben Bernanke idea of printing huge amounts of fiat money year after year appears to be working, as it has articifically inflated the stock market, as $85 billion dollars in newly printed money each month has to go somewhere.
And Wall Street is definitely celebrating today with balloons, streamers, champagne, caviar and of course huge commissions. Let's party, happy days are here again.
Celebrate and have your fun, before the next bubble busts and they take away the punch bowl and turn off the lights
" Dow crosses 14,000 on jobs rally"
This is so misleading, Jobs rally? 154,000 jobs were created, but 170,000 people LOST their jobs- a net loss which is why the unemloyment rate went UP! We're losing jobs, unemployment is stuck at 8% and MSN tries to portray this as a jobs rally? No surprise, they have a narrative and that's what they're pushing.
why would anybody be surprised that Obama and Jay Carney and the left wing media LIED ABOUT
EVERYTHING AND COVERED UP EVERYTHING AND PUSHED HIS RADICAL AGENDA? what
the hell did they think would happen? the obamanites don't care cause the rich ones are making more
money and aren't effected by any of his agenda and the ones on the obama money train aren't paying
anything! it's the middle class tax payer! higher energy gas fuel food prices and now obamacare is
cutting our services and raising our healthcare cost and now he raised our taxes!!!! he said in his
speeches he wanted to get rid of the middle class and poor and make them one in the same! but then
you have rich and some what middle class that's all! then big govit takes over completely!
hehe 'jobs rally' 157,000 jobs created, yea right, meanwhile 167,000 people left the workforce??!!! no sane rational person thinks this is anything but smoke and mirrors
(hmm wonder what happened to the 500,000 per month promised by that senile old idiot fool biden, anyway)
since obama is pres 8.5 million people lost their jobs, so exactly what kind of math are we talkin' bout here?? oh right, marxist phony kind, got it. unemployment "ticks' up to 7.9% and there's a "rally"??? that means that unemployment is now 15%, true numbers, 18% for blacks, ironic ain't it. oh yea, let's not forget the GDP 'contracting' , ZERO GROWTH sheepole!!
Logically the reverse would be true, here in Realityland where I reside, you would think that if there was any kind of "rally" it would be due to the fact more people are hired, the unemployment rate dropped to at least 5% more people are now comfortable with risking some money since they're now hired ON A REAL PERMANENT JOB, NOT SOME TEMP BULLSHIIIIT ONE!!! and then you read this nonsense on this site when it's all phony, the biggest irony here is that the only people risking anything in the market are the very same, VERY RICH investing, the VERY SAME people the left HATE, kick in the head huh? heh
que the Twilight Zone music please.
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MARKET UPDATE
[BRIEFING.COM] Equities ended on their lows with the S&P 500 down 1.4%.
The S&P entered today's session with a week-to-date gain of 1.5% as investors expected reassuring words from today's Federal Open Market Committee Statement.
Stocks traded with slim losses until this afternoon's FOMC Statement and subsequent comments from Chairman Bernanke sent equities and Treasuries to their lows while also providing a significant boost to the dollar.
Today's Statement was ... More
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