Dow breaks 10,000 mark

Breaking a psychological barrier for the first time in 18 months, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 10,000 mark today.

Ending at 10,008.16, the index gained 86.30 points today, propelled by two pieces of good news. A better-than-expected November retail-sales report spurred the initial climb, which continued in the afternoon when investors read minutes of the Oct. 28 Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting. Those minutes suggested higher interest rates wouldn’t materialize anytime soon, the Associated Press reports.

The last time the Dow closed above 10,000 was May 24, 2002, when the index stood at 10,104.26. The Dow’s five-year low was 7,286.27 on Oct. 9, 2002.

The Nasdaq rose 37.67, or 2 percent, to close at 1,942.32. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 12.16, or 1.2 percent, ending at 1,071.21.

“Investors are going to be pleasantly surprised by fourth- quarter earnings,” Sandy Lincoln of Wayne Hummer Asset Management in Chicago told Bloomberg.com. The Fed comments signal investors “don’t have to worry about higher interest rates choking off this rally.”

The Fed minutes revealed the committee expected future economic growth “would not entirely eliminate currently large margins of unemployed labor and other resources until perhaps the later part of 2005 or even later.” To some investors, Bloomberg reports, that means the central bank may hold its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent for longer than previously expected.

The retail report indicates sales in November rose 0.9 percent, led by new cars, furniture and electronics. The rise had been predicted to be just 0.7 percent.

“This market is ready to have a good run to the end of the year. People are looking at the economy and are starting to see good growth,” Michael Murphy, head trader at Wachovia Securities in Baltimore told AP.

The news service reports investors are moving out of the tech and small-cap stocks that have led the recovery since March and shifting their profits into larger blue-chip companies.