Stocks Rally As Investors Cheers Budget Bill To Avert The ‘Fiscal Cliff’

Markets kicked off 2013 on a positive tone. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

The Dow was up 308 points to 13,412. The S&P 500 Index rose to a two-month high as it gained 36 points to 1462 and the NASDAQ advanced 92 points to 3112.
Stocks rallied as investors cheered passage of a budget bill to avert the fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. However, Moody's warned that further action is needed for the U.S. to maintain its top credit rating.
On the economic front, today’s data was mixed. The ISM Manufacturing Index rose in December from a three-year low, but construction spending unexpectedly fell in November.
Overall, all sectors gained ground. Telecommunication was the best performing group as AT&T advanced $1.29 to $35.00. Technology and financial shares followed closely behind as Apple rallied by $15.76 to $548.78 and Bank of America gained 42 cents to $12.03. Retailers bucked the uptrend ahead of Thursday’s same-store-sales figures as Target lost 35 cents to $58.82 and Macy’s gave up 71 cents to $38.31.
NYSE Composite volume was over 4.1 billion shares. The NYSE was 10-1 positive on issues and 12-1 positive on volume. On the NASDAQ, advancers beat decliners by 7-1 on issues and by 13-1 on volume.
In fixed-income, a return to the risk-trade pushed the yield on the 10-year note to its highest level since October as it lost 22/32 to yield 1.84%.

For the complete report, click Ken's Market Report.

Filed Under: fiscal cliff