MARKET REPORT

Stocks gain a 6th day, hit high

Trader Michael Zicchinolfi (right) works Friday on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Trader Michael Zicchinolfi (right) works Friday on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

NEW YORK - A burst of hiring in February pushed stocks higher on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 67.58 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 14,397.07. The index surpassed its previous record close Tuesday and logged a sixth straight increase Friday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 6.92 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,551.18. The Nasdaq composite advanced 12.28 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,244.37.

Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was about average at 3.5 billion shares.

U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January, the Labor Department reported. That’s far better than the 156,000 job gains and unemployment rate of 7.8 percent that economists surveyed by FactSet expected.

The strong job growth suggests employers are confident about the economy despite higher taxes and government spending cuts.

Optimism that hiring is picking up has been one of the factors bolstering the stock market this year. Stocks also have gained on evidence that the housing market is recovering and company earnings continue to grow.

Andres Garcia-Amaya at JPMorgan Asset Management said the strong jobs report may heighten speculation that the Federal Reserve will end its stimulus sooner than investors had anticipated, which would be a negative for the stock market.

“If the economy maintains or increases the pace of job creation ... that could change the Fed’s stance,” said Garcia-Amaya. “That could mean that the Fed could take the ‘punch bowl’ away.”

The Dow has gained 9.9 percent this year and is trading at record levels, having broken its previous record of 14,164 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 8.8 percent since the start of the year, and is less than 1 percent short of its all time high close of 1,565 set Oct. 9, 2007.

The stock market is drawing in more investors as it continues to surge.

Investors put $3.2 billion into stock mutual funds in the week ending Wednesday, data provider Lipper reported Friday. That’s the ninth straight week of net inflows to stock funds, bringing this year’s total to $59 billion.

Friday’s jobs report strengthens the case of stock market bulls, who say the economy is gaining momentum after a long and tepid recovery after the financial crisis and recession,said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade.

“It gives hope to those that say this rally isn’t just about the Fed, it’s about the economy recovering,” said Kinahan. “It’s giving people confidence that maybe the economy is turning the corner.”

The Dow is up 120 percent since reaching a 12-year low during the recent recession. The index bottomed out almost exactly four years ago, on March 9, 2009, at 6,547. The S&P 500 has gained 129 percent since hitting its own bottom of 676 on the same date.

Business, Pages 30 on 03/09/2013

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