Stocks Move Higher on Encouraging Data
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:39 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Encouraging jobs data and a largely upbeat estimate of future economic activity lifted stocks Thursday.
News that New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso resigned amid criticism of his $139.5 million pay package had little, if any, effect on trading.
In morning trading, the Dow Jones industrials rose 32.01, or 0.3 percent, to 9,577.66.
The broader market also moved higher. The Nasdaq composite index gained 3.63, or 0.2 percent, to 1,886.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.41, or 0.4 percent, to 1,030.38.
Grasso's departure was somewhat expected, given the growing furor outside and on Wall Street about what some viewed as his excessive compensation. But the market was more interested Thursday in economic news suggesting the recovery was progressing.
The Index of Leading Economic indicators, a closely watched gauge of future economic activity, rose 0.4 percent in August to 113.3. The figure was in line with analysts' expectations, and followed a revised 0.7 percent increase in July, but the assessment by the Conference Board also showed the current business climate had stalled.
Wall Street also was cheered by a Labor Department report that new claims for jobless benefits fell by a seasonally adjusted 29,000 to 399,000 for the work week ending Sept. 13. It was the lowest level of claims since the week ending Aug. 23, and marked the first time since then that claims dipped below the 400,000 mark.
German pharmaceutical maker Bayer surged $1.35, or 6 percent, to $23.65 on news a federal judge had denied class-action status to several thousand lawsuits against the company over its anticholesterol drug Baycol.
The market shrugged off news of contract agreements between autoworkers and General Motors Corp. and Delphi Corp. GM fell 19 cents to $41.4850, while Delphi lost 5 cents to $9.61.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 6 to 5 on the NYSE, where volume came to 162.16 million shares.
The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, rose 0.34, or 0.1 percent, to 515.44.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished Thursday up 0.4 percent. In afternoon trading in Europe, France's CAC-40 was off nearly 0.1 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX index advanced 0.9 percent.
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