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NEW YORK >> Wall Street pushed higher today as investors remained hopeful that the economy will improve despite a murky corporate outlook and a disappointing jobs report. Stocks up despite
weak jobs reportBy Hope Yen
Associated PressVolume was moderate and somewhat choppy in advance of tomorrow's Good Friday holiday, when the market is closed. A regional manufacturing report, meanwhile, helped give stocks a lift.
"The bulls in particular are looking for concrete signs of improvement in earnings, but we're seeing an aimless drift along the bottom," said Keith Keenan, vice president of institutional trading at New York-based Wall Street Access.
Still, "many investors are looking through rose-colored glasses," he said. "But ultimately share prices could come under pressure in the next month or two due to weaker-than-expected earnings in the second half."
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 5 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was moderate.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 80.04, or 1 percent, at 8,337.65, having declined 144 points yesterday. Earlier in the day, blue chip stocks fell as much as 22 points.
The broader market also advanced. The Nasdaq composite index rose 30.78, or 2.2 percent, to 1,425.50. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 13.67, or 1.6 percent, to 893.58. The Russell 2000 index rose 5.97, or 1.6 percent, to 383.70.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was down 1/8 point, while its yield rose to 3.96 percent from 3.94 percent yesterday. Two-year Treasury notes were off 1/16 point and yielded 1.68 percent, up from 1.65 percent yesterday. The bond market closed early today ahead of Good Friday.
The Labor Department reported today that new applications for jobless benefits rose last week by a seasonally adjusted 30,000 to 442,000. It was the second-highest level of this year and the latest indicator of the difficulties workers face in the sluggish economy.
But the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's April survey of business conditions came in at minus 8.8, compared with a minus 8.0 for March. April's better-than-expected reading apparently offered investors some hope of a better outlook.
Nokia rose $1 to $16.18 after the maker of cell phones reported first-quarter profits that beat Wall Street's estimates.
Broadcom surged $2.55 to $16.60 after the chipmaker posted strong quarterly earnings and forecast double-digit sales growth in the second quarter.
And AMR jumped 77 cents, or 18.2 percent, to $5 on investor relief after flight attendants at its American Airlines unit accepted $340 million in labor concessions, which may help the company avoid bankruptcy protection.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished 0.7 percent lower. In Europe, France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.9 percent and Germany's DAX index climbed 2.7 percent.
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