As Stocks Barrel Higher, Dow Jones Remains Within 100 Of 13,000
On Thursday, investors sent U.S. stocks barreling to their maximum levels of the year sustained by slivers of cheering latest jobs and housing. An increase of nearly 123.13 points was noted in the Dow Jones industrial average which closed at approximately 12,904.08 its 3rd triple digit gain in 2012. Since May 19th 2008, this was the highest close for the Doe Jones industrial index. Furthermore, clapping broke out at the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as the index moved to within sight of 13000.
On the other hand, the S&P 500 index increased by 14.81 points and reached to 1,358.04. This was its highest close since 9 months. The Nasdaq Composite, which has had an even better year than the Dow and S&P and is trading at its highest since 2000, increased 44.02 points and closed at 2,959.85. In the Standard & Poor, all 10 industry groups were contentedly higher led by material stocks including burly showings from Dow Chemical and DuPont. Among the best performing stocks of the day was that of General Motors. Last year, the company turned a record $7.6 billion profit. On the other hand, Microsoft’s shares increased by 4 percent. The U.S. Labor Department revealed that its weekly applications for unemployment benefits declined for the fourth time in 5 weeks to the lowest point since March 2008. That was when the jobless rate was nearly 5.1 percent, far below the current rate of 8.3 percent. In January, construction of single family houses eased faintly.
Chief market strategist at Lightspeed Financial, Ben Schwartz said that not much is going on in the market at the moment. Adding further, he cautioned that there could be instability ahead for the market. This year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has yet to suffer a 100 point loss. The President of Burke Financial Strategies, John Burke said that he believes the U.S. Federal Reserve has been unnaturally propping up the market with inexpensive money created by low interest rates. Burke cautioned that the low rates could permit the United States to put off dipping its budget deficit.
