DOW CLIMBS ONE MORE PEAK : JOBS REPORT PUSHES MARKET UP 130, TO 7,435.Byline: Kimberly Blanton The Boston Globe The stock market climbed to a new record - again. A 130.49-point rise in the Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. pushed the index past the 7,400 mark Friday for the first time to a record 7,435.78. The 10 highest closing averages in the Dow index all occurred this month and last. Spurring investors was the nation's jobs report for May which, though mixed, was interpreted by the market with optimism, economists and investment analysts said. The Labor Department The Department of Labor (DOL) administers federal labor laws for the Executive Branch of the federal government. Its mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working report revealed the nation's unemployment rate, which had been the lowest in a generation in April, fell further in May to 4.8 percent, intensifying a labor shortage A Labor shortage is an economic condition in which there are insufficient qualified candidates (employees) to fill the market-place demands for employment at any price. This condition is sometimes referred to by Economists as "an insufficiency in the labor force. that could force employers to raise wages - and prices - as they try to keep up with demand. Despite those pressures, however, wages rose only modestly in May, the report showed. ``The market is looking at everything with rose-colored glasses right now,'' said Thomas O'Neill Thomas O'Neill can refer to:
The stock market, investment analysts said, chose to read the jobs report as yet another indication that the economy continues to grow but at rates slow enough to prevent a surge in inflation. Investors also were comforted by a second Labor Department report that said the economy produced a relatively small number of nonfarm jobs in May. Stock buyers relaxed from fears the Federal Reserve Board would raise interest rates, and bond sales tumbled after the report. Other news earlier this week also pointed to steady but slow growth. A report by the National Association of Purchasing Managers, a bellwether Bellwether A leading indicator of trends. Notes: A bellwether stock is a stock that is used to gauge the performance of the market in general. General Motors was an example of a bellwether stock, hence the saying "What's good for GM is good for America. survey of manufacturers, showed that while factory activity increased, prices paid for supplies by manufacturers edged down. ``This was an unusual week in that we had a lot of economic news,'' said Robert Freedman freed·man n. A man who has been freed from slavery. freedman Noun pl -men History a man freed from slavery Noun 1. , chief investment officer of John Hancock Funds. Investors picked out ``the most positive news they could'' from each report, he said, and concluded that ``the economy continues to be quite healthy.'' The market surge Friday marked the ninth time this year that the Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance index has risen by 100 points or more in a day's trading. The index close was above the prior record of 7,383.41 set May 27, the latest in a series of records for a market that analysts say becomes increasingly volatile as it reaches new heights. In the broader market, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 12-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. on volume of about 488 million shares. Stocks of both large and small companies fared well. The Nasdaq composite index Nasdaq Composite Index An index that indicates price movements of securities in the over-the-counter market. It includes all domestic common stocks in the Nasdaq System (approximately 5,000 stocks) and is weighted according to the market value of each listed , a technology-heavy index, rose 14.79 points to 1,404.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index surged 14.58 to 858.01, as investors sought safe havens Safe Havens is a comic strip drawn by cartoonist Bill Holbrook and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. Started in 1988, the strip is currently published in more than 50 newspapers. from the volatility in big companies like Procter & Gamble. The consumer products company's stock was up 3, to close at 136-1/4. BIG DAYS FOR DOW The Dow Jones industrial average recorded the sixth-largest point gain in history Friday, but it wasn't close to the largest percentage increases. The 15 best point days for the average, including percentage change in value: Oct. 21, 1987 186.84 to 2,027.85, 10.1 percent. April 29, 1997 - 179.01 to 6,962.03, 2.6 percent. April 22, 1997 - 173.38 to 6,833.59, 2.6 percent. May 5, 1997 - 143.29 to 7,214.49, 2.0 percent. April 15, 1997 - 135.26 to 6,587.16, 2.1 percent. June 6, 1997 - 130.49 to 7,435.78, 1.8 percent. Dec. 19, 1996 - 126.87 to 6,473.64, 2.0 percent. May 12, 1997 - 123.22 to 7,292.75, 1.7 percent. Jan. 17, 1991 - 114.60 to 2,623.51, 4.6 percent. March 11, 1996 - 110.55 to 5,581.00, 2.0 percent. Feb. 12, 1997 - 103.52 to 6,961.63, 1.5 percent. Oct. 20, 1987 - 102.27 to 1,841.01, 5.9 percent. Jan. 3, 1997 - 101.60 to 6,544.09, 1.6 percent. March 24, 1997 - 100.46 to 6,905.25, 1.5 percent. March 18, 1996 -98.63 to 5,683.60, 1.8 percent. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. CAPTION(S): Box Box: Big days for dow (see text) |
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