In this Sept. 30, 2008 file photo, Wall St. is shown in New York. Investors are adding more money to stocks following a drop in weekly unemployment claims Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, and an upbeat forecast from Procter & Gamble.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 80 points Thursday to its highest close since November. The index is up 347 points in five days, its longest winning streak since last fall.
The gains have come even as analysts say the market is overdue for a retreat. The advance followed the Labor Department's report that jobless claims fell more than expected to 550,000 last week. A jump in oil lifted energy companies and an upbeat forecast from consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. added to enthusiasm about an economic recovery.
Momentum grew in midafternoon as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a Congressional panel that confidence and stability were returning to the economy after the panic that began a year ago.
Some pieces of bad news held back certain shares but didn't get in the way of a broad market advance. Agricultural company Monsanto Co. warned that its 2009 earnings would come in at the low end of its forecast and said it would cut more jobs than previously announced.
Investors voiced concerns about the pace of the gains but few wanted to stand in the way of a market that was carving its way higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen 54.3 percent since hitting a 12-year low in March. It is sitting at an 11-month high, though it's still down 33.3 percent from its peak in October 2007.
Ralph Fogel, co-chief investment officer at Fogel Neale Partners in New York, argues that too many analysts are now expecting a pullback for it to actually happen. He pointed to a well-tested piece of Wall Street wisdom that if a certain prediction becomes too widely expected in the marketplace, that conclusion is often wrong.
"I'm not sure why sure this market is going to slow up so much," Fogel said. "We look for a nice continued move upward."
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 80.26, or 0.8 percent, to 9,627.48 to its highest close since Nov. 3, when it ended at 9,319.83.
The broader S&P 500 index rose 10.77, or 1 percent, to 1,044.14. The index hasn't risen five straight days since a streak that ended Nov. 28. The Nasdaq composite index rose 23.63, or 1.2 percent, to 2,084.02.
Bond prices jumped after a $12 billion auction of 30-year Treasury notes drew strong demand. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.36 percent from 3.48 percent late Wednesday. The yield on the 30-year bond fell to 4.20 percent from 4.33 percent.
Investors made selective bets on companies following a mixed batch of corporate forecasts. P&G rose $2.28, or 4.2 percent, to $56.04, while Monsanto fell $4.18, or 5 percent, to $79.30.
Some analysts remain cautious. Subodh Kumar, global investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Associates in Toronto, contends that the market has gone too far without a break.
"The fact that it got here without any meaningful corrections means it hasn't stopped since March to test the validity of its assumptions," he said.
Three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 813.5 million shares compared with 875.3 million at the same point Wednesday. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 8.50, or 1.5 percent, to 594.90.
The dollar fell against other major currencies. Gold slipped.
Light, sweet crude rose 63 cents to $71.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.4 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2 percent.
Sumber : AP
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