Employment Outlook, Earnings Help Stocks Close Higher - East Idaho News
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Employment Outlook, Earnings Help Stocks Close Higher

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GETTY B 102511 WallStreetStock?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1366924069868Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Stock prices Thursday rose on some positive earnings reports and encouraging news about employment.
 
The Dow Jones Industrial advanced for the fourth time in five sessions, closing up 24.50 points, or 0.2 percent, at 14,700.80. The Nasdaq Composite added 20.33 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 3,289.99. The S&P gained 6.27 points, or 0.4 percent, and closed at 1,585.16.
 
According to the latest reports from Amazon, Exxon, UPS and Dow Chemical’s, the revenue for the companies exceeded forecasts.
 
Next week’s unemployment report may show the job market’s picked up steam.  The latest weekly numbers fell by 16,000, hitting the second-lowest level in five months.
 
Trading on the nation’s largest exchange for financial options resumed Thursday afternoon, following an outage blamed on software problems.   The Chicago Board of Options Exchange failed to open at its regular time of 9:30 a.m. EST. It didn’t start trading until almost 1 p.m.

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