February 11, 2009 4:31 PM
- Text
Dow Closes Above 14,000 For First Time
Chef and owner Josiah Slone, right, prepares a foie gras dish at Sent Sovi Friday, May 11, 2012 in Saratoga, Calif. This is not a good time to be a duck in California. As a July 1 deadline looms for foie gras nears, renegade chefs across the state are loading their menus with the fatty duck liver and even holding secret dinners to avoid protesters, who say that force-feeding ducks is cruel. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Wall Street moved soundly higher Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrials to their first close above 14,000 as investors kept jitters about the economy at bay and focused on a string of upbeat earnings reports.
With Thursday's rally, the Dow has climbed more than 1,500 points this year. It cracked 13,000 in April, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason, and just three months later, it's another 1,000 points higher.
The catalyst? A global boom that's sending stock prices soaring for multinationals like the airplane manufacturer Boeing (+15 percent), Caterpillar (+41 percent), which makes farming equipment, and the technology company Honeywell (+35 percent), adds Mason.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index also had a record close.
Profit news from companies like International Business Machines Corp., network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc., and business software company SAP AG help lift stocks and boosted investors' appetite for technology issues.
Resurgent concerns about the health of subprime loans, which are made to borrowers with poor credit history, hurt financial stocks, while a report that a would-be suitor for Alcoa Inc. had lost interest kept the Dow Jones industrial average from extending its gains.
The flurry of corporate news Thursday coincided with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's return to Capitol Hill for the second day of his semiannual report to Congress in which he said problems such as foreclosures among holders of subprime mortgages are "likely to get worse before they get better." Also, a research group predicted Thursday that the housing slump will cause the economy to contract slightly in coming months.
"I don't see any big conviction by anybody to leap into the market, but we're all terrified to not be players," said Jeffrey Dunham, principal at Dunham & Associates in San Diego. "It's gone awfully far in an awfully short time and the market is trying to figure out 'Is this a head-fake or is this the real deal?"'
The Dow rose 82.19, or 0.59 percent, to close at 14,000.41. The blue-chip index danced around the 14,000 mark throughout the session, having first reached it on Tuesday but not closing above that level until Thursday. The Dow's close topped the previous record of 13,971.55 set Tuesday and marked the index's 32nd record close of the year.
Broader stock indicators also logged advances. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.91, or 0.45 percent, to 1,553.08; its previous record of 1,552.50 occurred Friday. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index rose 20.55, or 0.76 percent, to 2,720.04, following a round of upbeat tech earnings.
Though stocks briefly shed some gains after newly released minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting appeared to confirm that the central bank has no plans to cut rates anytime soon, investors resumed buying in short order.
Bonds showed little overall movement. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was flat at 5.03 percent from late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
The stock market's rise came even as oil traded higher. Light, sweet crude settled up 87 cents at $75.92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after briefly touching $76 for the first time in 11 months.
Thursday's gains extended a partial recovery that started late in Wednesday's session, when the Dow pulled itself up from a loss of 134 points to end with only a 53-point deficit. Stocks had ceded ground Wednesday amid uneasiness about Bernanke's assessment of the economy, though analysts subsequently noted there was little new in his comments.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. With Thursday's rally, the Dow has climbed more than 1,500 points this year. It cracked 13,000 in April, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason, and just three months later, it's another 1,000 points higher.
The catalyst? A global boom that's sending stock prices soaring for multinationals like the airplane manufacturer Boeing (+15 percent), Caterpillar (+41 percent), which makes farming equipment, and the technology company Honeywell (+35 percent), adds Mason.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index also had a record close.
Profit news from companies like International Business Machines Corp., network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc., and business software company SAP AG help lift stocks and boosted investors' appetite for technology issues.
Resurgent concerns about the health of subprime loans, which are made to borrowers with poor credit history, hurt financial stocks, while a report that a would-be suitor for Alcoa Inc. had lost interest kept the Dow Jones industrial average from extending its gains.
The flurry of corporate news Thursday coincided with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's return to Capitol Hill for the second day of his semiannual report to Congress in which he said problems such as foreclosures among holders of subprime mortgages are "likely to get worse before they get better." Also, a research group predicted Thursday that the housing slump will cause the economy to contract slightly in coming months.
"I don't see any big conviction by anybody to leap into the market, but we're all terrified to not be players," said Jeffrey Dunham, principal at Dunham & Associates in San Diego. "It's gone awfully far in an awfully short time and the market is trying to figure out 'Is this a head-fake or is this the real deal?"'
The Dow rose 82.19, or 0.59 percent, to close at 14,000.41. The blue-chip index danced around the 14,000 mark throughout the session, having first reached it on Tuesday but not closing above that level until Thursday. The Dow's close topped the previous record of 13,971.55 set Tuesday and marked the index's 32nd record close of the year.
Broader stock indicators also logged advances. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.91, or 0.45 percent, to 1,553.08; its previous record of 1,552.50 occurred Friday. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index rose 20.55, or 0.76 percent, to 2,720.04, following a round of upbeat tech earnings.
Though stocks briefly shed some gains after newly released minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting appeared to confirm that the central bank has no plans to cut rates anytime soon, investors resumed buying in short order.
Bonds showed little overall movement. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was flat at 5.03 percent from late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
The stock market's rise came even as oil traded higher. Light, sweet crude settled up 87 cents at $75.92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after briefly touching $76 for the first time in 11 months.
Thursday's gains extended a partial recovery that started late in Wednesday's session, when the Dow pulled itself up from a loss of 134 points to end with only a 53-point deficit. Stocks had ceded ground Wednesday amid uneasiness about Bernanke's assessment of the economy, though analysts subsequently noted there was little new in his comments.
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