Dow hits 14,000 for 1st time since October 2007

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Dow stock market index flirted with the 14,000 line Friday, bringing reminders of the last time it hit that mark ? almost a different era, before the financial crisis rocked the world economy.

Propelled by reports on U.S. jobs and auto sales, the Dow Jones industrial average crossed the line and kept its ground through the early afternoon, after flitting back and forth throughout the morning. The other major stock indexes also rose.

"There's a newfound enthusiasm for the equity market," said Jim Russell, regional investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.

But market watchers were divided over what the Dow milestone ? or even what a Dow all-time high, which is quickly approaching ? really means. To some, it's an important booster to hearts and minds, making investors feel optimistic and thus more willing to bet on the market.

"The Dow touching 14,000, it matters psychologically," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York. "It attracts smaller investors."

And smaller investors, until the past few weeks, had been shying away from stocks. In the past three weeks, though, billions have flowed into mutual funds targeting U.S. stocks, according to the Investment Company Institute. Before that, investors had been pulling more cash from U.S. stock funds than they'd deposited for every month since April 2011.

To others, though, the Dow 14,000 is nothing but a number on a board, a sign more of how traders feel than how the economy is faring. And even then, it's not even the best number on the board, some traders say. Professional investors usually pay more heed to the Standard & Poor's main index, which tracks 500 companies compared to the Dow 30. The Dow, however, is more familiar to the general public.

Joe Gordon, managing partner at Gordon Asset Management in North Carolina, wasn't celebrating on Friday. He thinks the gains won't last. The fact that small investors are finally piling back in the stock market, he said, is a sign that it's getting overhyped and ready to fall.

After the Dow hit its all-time record in 2007, it fell almost steadily and a year later had lost nearly 40 percent of its value a year later.

"It is good trivia to talk about on television and the radio," Gordon said, referring to the 14,000 mark. "It's meaningless to the average professional." And for workers still unemployed by the financial crisis, he said, "it really means nothing to them."

If there's dissent over what Dow 14,000 means, what's undeniable is that it's a rarefied event: The Dow has crossed 14,000 only 15 times in its history, and the last time was more than five years ago, on Oct. 17, 2007.

If the gains hold throughout the day and the Dow closes above 14,000, that would put it in territory even more uncommon. On just nine days has the Dow managed to stay above the 14,000 mark until the end of trading. Friday's gains also mean that the Dow is within striking distance of its all-time record of 14,164.53, which it reached on Oct. 9, 2007.

For the average investor, that was all back when the stock market still seemed like a party. Housing prices were starting to ebb but hadn't cratered. Jobs were abundant, with unemployment at 4.7 percent ? compared to 7.9 percent now. Lehman Brothers still existed. So did Bear Stearns, Wachovia and Washington Mutual.

In the afternoon, the Dow was up 152 points to 14,013. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 15 to 1,513. The Nasdaq composite index was up 38 to 3,180.

Auto sales helped. Toyota, Ford, GM and Chrysler all reported double-digit gains for January.

The government jobs report that pushed stocks forward was mixed, but traders chose to focus on the positive. The U.S. said it added 157,000 jobs in January, which was in line with expectations. Unemployment inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in December. But, encouragingly, the government also reported that hiring over the past two years has been higher than it originally thought.

The jobs number is based on a survey of employers, and the unemployment rate is based on a separate survey of households, which is why they can diverge.

In Europe, tentative and incremental signs of a recovery were enough to push up stocks in France, Britain and Germany. December unemployment in the European Union was lower than analysts had feared, inflation unexpectedly fell, and a survey raised hopes of some growth in the manufacturing sector.

But there were also reminders that the debt problem is far from solved. The Netherlands was also forced to take over one of its major banks, to try to stave off a collapse. In Greece, dock workers extended a strike over the government's spending cuts.

Among companies making big moves:

? Drugmaker Merck fell nearly 3 percent, down $1.15 to $42.10. Its fourth-quarter profit suffered because of competition from generic medicines against its blockbuster allergy drug Singulair.

? Insurance company MetLife rose 2 percent, or 75 cents, to $38.09, after saying it plans to buy the largest private pension fund administrator in Chile.

? Zoetis, an animal health business that Pfizer just spun off, made its debut on the stock market. It was up 21 percent, rising $5.47 to $31.47.

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AP Business Writer Matthew Craft contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dow-hits-14-000-1st-time-since-october-164948401--finance.html

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