US stocks rose after a report showing the economy added jobs for the first time in seven months fueled confidence in an earnings rebound.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished higher for a fourth week, its longest winning streak since May.
"Employment was the missing piece of the puzzle," said Richard Sichel, who oversees US$600 million as chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co. He expects companies will start raising profit forecasts "in a few weeks."
He is buying Wells Fargo & Co and American Home Products Corp shares.
International Business Machines Corp, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp accounted for more than half the Dow's gain after Merrill Lynch & Co advised investors to buy technology shares.
The NASDAQ Composite Index rose 48.04, or 2.6 percent, to 1,929.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 6.77, or 0.6 percent, to 1,164.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 47.12, or 0.5 percent, to 10,572.49.
The Dow gained 2 percent for the week, extending its year-to-date advance to 5.5 percent. The S&P 500 rallied 2.9 percent, erasing the benchmark's loss for the year.
The NASDAQ rose 7 percent, paring its year-to-date decline to 1.1 percent. It was down 12 percent as recently as two weeks ago.
The US stopped losing jobs in February, the Labor Department reported. Payrolls rose by 66,000, after dropping 126,000 in January and 106,000 in December. Unemployment fell to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent.
The data came a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress a recovery is "well under way."
Treasuries dropped for a seventh day, the longest slide in almost a decade for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, on concern inflation may quicken as demand recovers. The yield on the 10-year note rose 10 basis points to 5.32 percent. Bond prices fall as yields rise.
"It's tough to argue against" an economic rebound, said Joe Balestrino, whose US$290 million Federated Stock and Bond Fund this week shifted money to stocks from bonds for the first time in two years. "We are bottoming right now from a corporate earnings perspective and have already bottomed from an economic perspective."
About 1.4 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, 3.2 percent more than the three-month daily average.
Advancing and declining stocks were about even on the Big Board, while almost two rose for every one that fell on the NASDAQ Stock Market.
Sun Microsystems, whose server computers run corporate networks and Web sites, gained US$1.17 to US$10. The company reiterated forecasts that fiscal third-quarter revenue will rise "slightly" from last quarter's US$3.11 billion.
IBM, the biggest computer maker, gained US$1.38 to US$105.09.
Cisco Systems Inc., the largest maker of equipment to direct Internet traffic, gained US$0.80 to US$17.80. Intel, the biggest chipmaker, rose US$1.19 to US$34.17.
Microsoft led software companies higher. The biggest software maker rose US$1.23 to US$63.95, Oracle Corp advanced US$0.20 to US$14.20 and Veritas Software Corp rose US$1.26 to US$44.41.
Merrill strategist Steven Milunovich reversed a call he made two months ago that technology stocks were too expensive and should be avoided. Today, he said "increasing signs of a bottom" in technology businesses and reports showing improvement in the overall economy have changed investor sentiment.
Companies in the S&P 500 trade at an average of 23 times next year's earnings estimates, 50 percent above the historical average of 15. At its March 2000 peak, the index traded at 26 times profit forecasts for the next 12 months.
"We're always concerned with valuations, but if earnings pick up, then prices will seem more reasonable," Philadelphia Trust's Sichel said.
General Electric Co, which led indexes higher earlier in the day, fell US$0.35 to US$40.60. The largest company by market value said it had US$43 billion in assets in so-called special-purpose entities. SPE's were used by bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp to keep billions of dollars in liabilities from appearing on its balance sheet.
Qualcomm Inc rose US$2.36 to US$43.80. The Chinese government ordered mobile-phone makers to increase production of handsets to expand the use of a new wireless network based on technology developed by Qualcomm.
Schlumberger Ltd led a decline in oil-service companies as crude fell on expectations for easing tensions in the Persian Gulf. The world's biggest oilfield-services company lost US$2.21 to US$58.14.
Smith International Inc dropped US$2.25 to US$64.53.
Financial companies gained as investors anticipated the renewed economic growth would increase lending and curb defaults.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co climbed US$1.64 to US$56.86, JP Morgan Chase & Co rose US$0.69 to US$34.74 and American Express Co rallied US$0.96 to US$40.47.
Biogen Inc dropped US$4.75 to US$51.65. Serono SA won US approval for the multiple sclerosis drug Rebif, threatening sales of Biogen's Avonex. Serono's US shares jumped US$2.62 to US$22.21.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
RSS