NEW YORK -- Stocks halted a three-day losing streak today as an anxiously awaited report showed that inflationary pressures persist in the labor market, but contained no major surprises. Dow up 78.47
The Dow Jones industrial average finished 78.47 points higher to close at 9,055.15 after pulling back from a gain of nearly 120. The barometer of 30 major companies had lost about 215 points the past three days after closing at a record 9,192.66 on Monday. Today's gain trimmed this week's loss to 91.92 for the Dow.
Advancers led decliners by an 8-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,811 up, 1,136 down and 561 unchanged. NYSE volume was 556.97 million shares vs. 581.62 million yesterday.
Broader stock indexes also began shrugging off the renewed concerns about interest rates and the continuing instability in Asia.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 13.00 to 1,108.14, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 29.23 to 1,864.37 as bellwether technology issues rallied. The NYSE composite rose 5.50 to 575.72, and the American Stock Exchange composite gained 1.98 to 744.23. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies climbed 3.55 to 479.51.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond fell 7/32 point, or $2.183/4 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.97 percent from 5.95 percent late yesterday.
Ending a week-long wait, the Labor Department reported this morning that unemployment rate fell to a 28-year low of 4.3 percent in April as the U.S. economy churned out 262,000 new jobs. The report also showed that average hourly earnings rose 4 cents to a record high of $12.67.