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Markets find a silver lining
NEW YORK - Investors undaunted by a surprisingly weak jobs report found enough positive news yesterday to nudge stocks higher.
While the day's gains were small, all three major indexes were up by more than 3 percent for the week.
The rise in joblessness to 10.2 percent in October, while bad news for the economy, reassured some investors that the Federal Reserve would have to hold interest rates low for some time. That tends to weaken demand for the dollar, which in turn gives a boost to stocks.
"We got data today that suggest interest rates are going to be on hold for a while," said Max Bublitz, chief strategist at SCM Advisors.
General Electric Co. shares rose 6 percent, or 90 cents, to $15.33 after analysts raised their ratings on the stock. It was the biggest gainer among the 30 Dow industrials.
Sunoco Inc. led losses in energy stocks, dropping 9.7 percent to $28.07 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The Philadelphia company, largest refiner in the U.S. Northeast, reported a third-quarter loss after slumping fuel demand prompted it to cut rates on processing units, idle a refinery, and scale back its pension program.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 17.46, or 0.2 percent, to 10,023.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.67, or 0.3 percent, to 1,069.30, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.12, or 0.3 percent, to 2,112.44.
Advancing stocks narrowly outpaced losers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 1.1 billion shares.
Bloomberg News contributed to this article.
