NST Online Business Times : latest

Posted: 03 May 2013 06:09 PM PDT

NEW YORK: US stocks soared to new closing records on Friday after a strong US jobs report revived confidence in the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 142.38 points (0.96 percent) to 14,973.96, after having breached the 15,000 mark earlier for the first time.

The S&P 500 finished at 1,614.42, up 16.83 points (1.05 percent), also setting a new record and crossing the 1,600 mark for the first time.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index ended at 3,378.63, up 38.01 points (1.14 percent).

The rise followed a US Labor Department report that showed the US economy added 165,000 jobs in April, well above market expectations.

Upward revisions for the prior two months also showed 114,000 more jobs were added than initially estimated.

"The reason the market is heading higher is because most people on Wall Street expect the fundamentals to improve as the year progresses," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's.

Industrial companies were among the biggest gainers in the Dow, including Caterpillar (+3.2 percent), 3M (+1.7 percent) and Alcoa (+1.9 percent).

Insurer AIG gained 5.7 percent after reporting earnings late Thursday of US$1.34 per share, well above the 87 cents projected by analysts.

Food giant Kraft jumped 5.1 percent after the company beat earnings expectations in its quarterly report and said it was on track to "deliver every element of our 2013 financial guidance."

The company saw strong consumption growth in its Kraft Natural and Velveeta cheese brands.

Online networking firm LinkedIn sank 12.9 percent despite reporting earnings that bested expectations. Wall Street was unhappy with its second-quarter revenue forecast of US$342-US$347 million, down from the US$359 million projected by analysts. -- AFP

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Jumaat, 3 Mei 2013

NST Online Business Times : latest

NST Online Business Times : latest

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