NST Online Business Times : latest
NST Online Business Times : latest |
| US stocks close year with sharp jump Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:03 PM PST WASHINGTON: US markets closed out the year on Monday with a sharp jump on news that Congress was close to a deal to avert the fiscal cliff - but also on a 4.4 percent gain by market giant Apple. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 166.03 points (1.28 percent) at 13,104.14. The broad-market S&P 500 gained 23.79 points (1.69 percent) at 1,426.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite surged 59.20 points (2.00 percent) to 3,019.51. The gains reversed losses of the previous week when cliff worries were strong, and left the main indices with respectable gains for the year: 7.3 percent for the Dow, 13.4 percent for the S&P 500, and 15.9 percent for the Nasdaq.
Nothing was certain: while the Senate was expected to pass the compromise legislation after it is finalised, possibly before the midnight Monday deadline, in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where resistance could be tougher, the vote would not be before Tuesday. But the markets pushed higher in expectation that the immediate threat of more than US$400 billion in tax increases would mostly be avoided. "A compromise over taxes and spending would be an important step that supports economic growth in the year ahead," said Gary Thayer, strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. Major shares were nearly all in the green, led by Apple's surge. The world's most valuable company by market capitalisation - an even US$500 billion at the end of trade on Monday - was a major driver of the markets ruing the year. Even though its price at Monday's close, US$532.17, was well below the year's high of US$705.07, Apple shares still racked up a 25.8 percent gain for 2012. -- AFP |
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