Economy, Dow Jones Industrial Average | featured news

The Dow Jones industrial average has reached another milestone, recording its longest winning streak since 1996. The index rose for the 10th time in a row Wednesday, gaining 83 points to close at 14,539, an increase of 0.6 percent.

To quell the latest financial crisis, the Federal Reserve smashed interest rates to the floor by buying bonds with money it effectively prints. Since 2008 assets on the Fed’s balance sheet, including those bonds, have tripled, to $3 trillion. (Hey, people needed encouragement, and low rates are encouraging.) The mixed results: Entrepreneurs and homeowners got some relief, while savers got whacked along with the value of the U.S. dollar. Starving for yield, investors piled into stocks, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its all-time high, absent inflation.

The Dow rose higher and briefly topped 14,000 Friday, hitting a milestone not seen since before the financial crisis rocked the world economy.

A weaker forecast of economic growth in Asia is sending stocks lower in early trading on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 47 points at 13,563 shortly after the opening bell Monday morning. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell seven points to 1,454 and the Nasdaq composite gave up 22 points to 3,113.

Stocks got a boost on Wall Street from positive economic news on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 135 points to 13,572 in the first hour of trading. The market was already higher in the opening minutes of trading, then jumped at 10 a.m. after the Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the first time in four months.

Faced with Facebook, Starbucks and Angela Merkel, the market chose to focus on Merkel. For a second day, the U.S. stock market powered higher after European leaders, including German chancellor Merkel, pledged to protect the union of 17 countries that use the euro. The Dow Jones industrial average blew past 13,000, a key psychological marker that it hadn't hit since early May.

Gloomy economic readings from three continents sent stocks skidding and spurred a bearish recommendation from Goldman Sachs, compounding losses in major benchmarks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 166 points, or 1.3%, to 12658 in afternoon trading on Thursday. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 21 points, or 1.5%, to 1334. The Nasdaq Composite ticked down 52 points, or 1.8%, to 2878, on course to snap a five-session streak of gains.

U.S. stocks moved higher in a choppy session Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average moving above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. The 13,000 level doesn’t hold a great deal of significance to market analysts, but “it’s nice to see a symbolic number,” Art Cashin, UBS director of floor operations, told CNBC. The Dow last moved above 13,000 on an intra-day basis on May 20, 2008. It last closed above that level on May 19, 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 339 points Thursday after European leaders unveiled a financial rescue plan and the data showed the U.S. economy growing at a faster clip in the third quarter than earlier in the year.

Stocks are edging higher following a four-week losing streak. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 23 points, or 0.2 percent, to 10,844 in midday trading Monday. It had been up as many as 203 points. The Dow fell 4 percent last week as worries deepened that the U.S. could slip into a recession. The S&P 500 rose less than a point to 1,124. The Nasdaq was up less than a point at 2,342.