Independent voices from the TWT Communities
A rally that that brought the stock market to record highs this year came back to life after U.S. home prices rose the most in seven years and consumer confidence reached a five-year high.
The U.S. stock market joined a global rally Tuesday, and the Dow Jones industrial average continued to flirt with the 15,000 mark.
Investors brushed off early jitters about a potential slowdown in China and pushed the Dow to its highest close of the year.
Stocks slumped Thursday on Wall Street, and the rally that has pushed indexes close to record levels stalled.
Stocks rose Wednesday on Wall Street after U.S. corporate earnings reports got off to a good start.
Stocks are dropping again on Wall Street as investors lose hope that Washington will meet a self-imposed deadline for reaching a budget deal by year-end.
A pair of encouraging economic reports helped nudge the stock market higher Wednesday. Measures of business activity in the service sector and job growth last month came in better than economists had expected.
Nobody ever said reading the Federal Reserve was easy. On Wednesday, the Fed appeared to suggest it was closer to taking additional steps to help the U.S. economy. Stocks rallied as a result and finished the day well off their lows. But the prospect of Fed help seemed much less certain Thursday, and stocks fell.
Monday is the only day the stock market is more likely to fall than to rise.
Now that the Dow Jones industrial average has closed above 13,000, an all-time high is in sight — just 1,160 points away. But the coast is not quite clear for the markets or the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average has closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, four months before the financial crisis.
A deal to forge stronger ties between most of Europe's economies sent stocks sharply higher Friday afternoon as hopes grew that the region is close to resolving its debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 215 points.
Trouble on two fronts in the European debt crisis sent American stocks tumbling Wednesday to their biggest loss since the rocky trading of last summer. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 400 points.
From combined dispatches
"They say the stock market tends to lead the economy. Now we're starting to see the improvement on the economic front, so there's some justification for this rally," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's investment research.
Stocks jump after surge in home prices, consumer confidence →
