U.S. stocks maintained their recent momentum Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 45 points to 12,623.98 following a better-than-expected jobs report.
The Nasdaq shot up another 18.62 points to 2,788.33 while the S&P 500 added 6.46 points to finish at 1,314.50.
On the economic front, the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims dropped 50,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000 last week, much better than the 385,000 that most economists had forecast.
Also, consumer prices in December were flat for a second straight month as gasoline prices fell and food rose moderately. Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to gain a tenth of a percent.
Meanwhile, housing starts declined 4.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000 units in December, according to the Commerce Department, an indication that the housing market is still struggling to find a bottom.
Here are some more details from Thursday’s trading session:
Dow Jones Industrial Average:
- Up three consecutive trading days and six of the last eight sessions.
- Highest close since July 22, 2011.
- An intraday high of 12625.80 occurred at 15:59:56 today, representing an increase of 46.85 points, or 0.37%.
- An intraday low of 12563.58 occurred at 10:05:58 today, representing a decrease of 15.37 points, or 0.12%.
- Today’s trading range of 60.22 points, is its lowest since December 27, 2011.
- Twenty of the 30 component stocks rose, 10 fell.
- Today's top five contributors to The Dow's movement and their point contribution: CAT (11.28), MMM (5.52), WMT (4.54), XOM (4.39), HD (4.01).
- Today's bottom five laggards: IBM (-4.16), UTX (-3.10), MCD (-2.27), KO (-1.06), PFE (-0.98).
- Down 1540.55 points, or 10.88% from its record close of 14164.53 on October 9, 2007.
- Up 6.78% from 52 weeks ago.
- Up 92.82% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 on March 9, 2009.
- Down 1.46% from its 52-week closing high of 12810.54 on April 29, 2011.
- Up 18.48% from its 52-week closing low of 10655.30 on October 3, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 3.33%.
- Year-to-date: up 3.33%.
- DJIA crossed zero 15 times during today's trading session.
Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index:
- Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index, 13648.93 (prelim)*, up 69.38 points, or 0.51%, or approximately $84.0 billion in market capitalization.
- Up three consecutive trading days and seven of the last eight.
- Highest close since July 26, 2011.
- Down 2096.46 points, or 13.31% (approximately $3.3 trillion in market cap), from its record close of 15745.39 on October 9, 2007.
- Up 100.72% (approximately $7.9 trillion in market cap), from the 12-½ year closing low of 6800.08 on March 9, 2009.
- Up 2.37% over the past 52 weeks.
- Down 4.61% from its 52-week closing high of 14308.37 on April 29, 2011.
- Up 20.80% from its 52-week closing low of 11299.07 on October 3, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 4.84%.
- Year-to-date: up 4.84%, or approximately $734 billion in market cap.
Data courtesy of Dow Jones Indexes.
