Wall Street Ends Week at Record Highs - East Idaho News
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Wall Street Ends Week at Record Highs

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GETTY B 102511 WallStreetStock?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1368824604355Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Stocks finishing out another record breaking week. The Dow, S&P and NASDAQ posting four straight weeks of gains.
 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the Friday session up 121 points to close the week at 15,354. Year to date the Dow is now up 17 percent.  

Hewlett-Packard, Boeing and Disney (the parent company of ABC), so far, are the biggest winners in 2013. As of now, there are only two stocks in the Dow 30 that are down for the year. The two laggards are Alcoa, which is down just half a percent, and Caterpillar, which is lower by a little more than two percent.
 
The S&P 500 also finished the week up 16 points at a fresh all-time high of 1,666. Like the Dow, the S&P is up just about 17 percent this year. The index has advanced 17 of the last 21 sessions.
 
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, closed the week at a new high in more than 12 years, closing up 34 points at 3,499. The Nasdaq is up nearly 16 percent this year.

One of the key drivers for the move higher Friday was the report that consumers are feeling more confident about the market and the economy. The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for May climbed to its highest level in almost six years.

General Motors shares, for the first time in two years, traded on Friday above the IPO price of $33.  Year to date GM is up 16 percent.  

After coming out of bankruptcy in 2010, the company began trading again. But the automaker would still have to surge to $79 a share for the government to make recoup all the money it gave to GM in the bailout.  The government still owns 241.7 million shares of GM.

The Treasury Department provided GM with $49.5 billion in TARP funds. So far, the government has recovered over $30 billion.
 
Meanwhile, stocks keep soaring, but gold keeps sagging. It’s now fallen seven straight sessions — the worst losing streak for gold since March of 2009.
 
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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