Good News, Stock Market | featured news

A big gain in the job market is lifting the stock market to new milestones. The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 15,000 for the first time early Friday, and the Standard and Poor's 500 index, a broader market measure, broke through 1,600 for the first time.

The Federal Reserve says it may start dialing back asset purchases this summer, but Wall Street doesn't seem worried Wednesday with stocks flying Wednesday and driving the major averages to fresh nominal highs.

New York's Dow Jones share index sets a new all-time high, as does the broader based S&P 500 index. The rallies mean the stock markets are returning to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average has reached another milestone, recording its longest winning streak since 1996. The index rose for the 10th time in a row Wednesday, gaining 83 points to close at 14,539, an increase of 0.6 percent.

It took 5½ years. Surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have finally allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average, an index of 30 U.S. stocks and a gauge of financial markets, closed at a record high of 14,253 on Tuesday. The Dow has more than doubled since hitting a 12-year low in March 2009....

Despite everything, the stock market is back at a record high. The Dow Jones industrial average, which measures the performance of 30 blue-chip companies, rose more than 140 points in afternoon trading on Tuesday, surpassing its previous record close of 14,164.53, which it achieved nearly five and a half years ago, as well as its record intraday high, set around the same time, of 14,198.10.

Talk of more merger and acquisitions is sending stock prices slightly higher in early trading, setting the market up to continue a seven-week rally.

The Dow and S&P 500 gained to finish at five-year highs in choppy trading Tuesday, ahead of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address later this evening.

Stocks are edging higher in early trading on Wall Street after a report showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in December.