Dow rises 72

NEW YORK -- Stocks rose to more record highs today after a robust employment report suggested that Asia's financial woes haven't yet inflicted any major damage on the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 72.24 points to 8,189.49, extending the week's gain to 282.99 points and just 70 points shy of the Aug. 6 record of 8,259.31.

Thanks to a 500-point rally over the past two weeks, the Dow has suddenly turned an early 1998 loss of more than 4 percent into a gain of nearly 4 percent.

Advancers led decliners by a 3-to-2 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,756 up, 1,151 down and 538 unchanged. NYSE volume was 568.02 million shares, the first tally below 700 million all week.

Broader stock indexes also resumed their rally after a one-session stumble, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the New York Stock Exchange composite closing at record highs for the fourth time this week. The S&P 500 rose 8.91 to 1,012.45, and the NYSE composite index gained 3.34 to 526.31.

The Nasdaq composite rose 17.43 to 1,694.33, the American Stock Exchange composite index gained 3.32 to 680.32, and the Russell 2000 index climbed 1.44 to 445.50.

The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 3/16 point, or $1.87 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield fell to 5.92 percent from 5.93 percent late yesterday.

Investors were heartened by a morning report showing that the national unemployment rate held near 24-year low of 4.7 percent in January as employers added a surprising 358,000 jobs to their payrolls.