(Source: USA TODAY)
By Matt Krantz
Slightly better news on the job and trade fronts Thursday gave investors a little more reason to trust the economy's recovery and buy stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.78 points to 10,405.83 after the Labor Department said the four-week average of weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest since September 2008, according to Thomson Reuters. The Dow is up 18.6% this year.
Meanwhile, helped mostly by stocks in the managed health care, tires and rubber, and aluminum industries, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.40 points to 1102.35. The S&P 500 is up 22.0% this year.
And the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 7.13 points to 2190.86. The Nasdaq is up 38.9% this year.
Investors are up $5.3 trillion in paper wealth since the market's March 9 low, based on the Wilshire 5000.
Another positive sign for stocks came from the bond markets. The difference between rates on short-term two-year Treasuries and long-term 30-year Treasuries was the widest since at least 1980, Bloomberg News says. Investors see this so-called steep yield curve as evidence traders trust the economic recovery.
Investors want to see good news regarding employment. "The jobs numbers that came out confirmed the unemployment scenario is abating," says Quincy Krosby of Prudential Financial.
Another positive is the fact that the market continues to withstand the credit difficulties in other parts of the world, including Dubai, says Michael Holland of Holland & Co.
Finally, markets are riding their positive momentum going into the end of the year, says Doug Sandler of Riverfront Investment Group.
"The trend is up. When there isn't much going on, the vacuum just pulls stocks higher," he says.
Highlights: McDonald's rose 45 cents to $61.05 after the world's biggest restaurant chain announced it would add more breakfast items priced at $1.
*Ciena, a maker of networking gear, fell $1.51 to $11.72. The company reported a deeper-than-expected quarterly loss of $26.7 million, or 12 cents a share, missing expectations for a loss of 7 cents a share.
*Nutraceutical International rose 76 cents to $12.36. The nutritional supplements company reported quarterly profit of $3.2 million, more than double what it earned in the year-ago period.
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