Dow Within 20 Points of 10,000 - Market Overview * US * News * Story

LATEST STOCK MARKET DATA

Hot & Cold Sectors
Tracking the major movements across the best & worst performing industry sector indexes.
Dow Components
Top Gainers & Losers
Major Indexes & Stocks to Watch

MORE HEADLINES

Markets | Economy | Companies

- Little Sign of Inflation on the Horizon: IMF

LATEST FROM OUR BLOGS

- Don't Dwell on Investment Mistakes; Move on, Like Buffett

FEATURED SLIDESHOWS

Runway Angels
The superbowl of fashion shows, models walk down the runway at the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
The Richest Members of the US Congress
Recently, the Center for Responsive Politics found that there are 237 millionaires in the US Congress.
10 Tips to Get Out of Debt
Renowned financial author Gail Vaz-Oxlade takes a tough-love approach to helping couples in a financial crisis to face reality.

FEATURED QUIZZES

How Much Do You Know About Green?
Green has become part of our everyday lives. Green is everywhere-- energy, clothing, food, housing, transportation. It's a big business and a global business.
The Billionaire BFF's
Philanthropists. Bridge partners. Hockey players. Which responses are based on facts from Buffett's and Gates' real lives?
The Many Myths of Coca-Cola
Can you tell which statements are true, and which ones are just rumors?

SPECIAL REPORTS

Winterizing Your Portfolio
If 2009 was the winter of our discontent, will 2010 be a winter wonderland for investors? A lot depends on the recovery—or lack thereof.
Investor's Guide to Real Estate
Some even say the long-awaited recovery is here. Regardless, buyers and sellers alike can profit from our guide.
Alternative Investing
Stocks and bonds? Sure. But it's a big world out there for investors.

CNBC ON DIGG

Dow Rallies, Now Within 20 Points of 10,000

Published: Wednesday, 14 Oct 2009 | 11:20 AM ET

Text Size

By: CNBC.com

Stocks rallied Wednesday, with the Dow homing in on 10,000, after JPMorgan and Intel got earnings season back on track and retail sales fell less than expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 100 points putting it within 20 points of the 10k mark.

Major U.S. Indexes

.DJIA

.NCOMP

.SPX

Retail sales fell 1.5 percent in September, the Commerce Department reported. Sales were hurt by a drop in car sales with the end of the Clunkers program but beat economists' expectations of a 2.1-percent drop. Excluding the volatile auto component, sales rose for a second straiught month.

This government report came after big chain stores last week beat September sales forecasts, helped by a helped by a late Labor Day and delayed back-to-school shopping. Plus, a cool September helped several retailers that are more impacted by weather.

FOR INVESTORS

In the morning's other economy news, import prices rose 0.1 percent in Septemer as the price of imported petroleum fell. Economists had expected a 0.2-percent increase.

JPMorgan [JPM Loading... () ] shares rose after the Wall Street giant crushed earnings expectations, delivering 82 cents a share — analysts had expected 52 cents a share.

This came on the heels of Intel's [INTC Loading... () ] earnings beat after the bell yesterday — the chip maker also delivered more bullish forecast than expected.

Railroad operator CSX [CSX Loading... () ] also beat consensus on its latest earnings report.

"Third-quarter results are on the whole better-than-expected in general, and it's taken some people by surprise," Anthony Conroy, head trader for BNY ConvergEX, told Reuters. "Now, you're starting to see not only decent earnings but a little bit of growth."

Crude oil [US@CL.1 Loading... () ] rose for a fifth straight day, heading toward $75 a barrel as commodities continue to benefit from US dollar weakness.

The dollar tumbled to its lowest level in more than a year against the euro, hurt by persistent expectations for low U.S. interest rates as well as investor appetite for commodity currencies.

The Federal Reserve's minutes from its meeting of Sept. 22-23 will be released at 2 p.m. with investors looking for signs of the Fed's thinking on the prospects for inflation.

Due to the Columbus Day holiday, the Energy Information Administration's measure of crude oil inventories will be out at 10:30 am New York time on Thursday.

Ford [F Loading... () ] reported record third-quarter vehicle sales in China.

After the bell today, we'll get a report from chipmaker Xilinx [XLNX Loading... () ].

RELATED LINKS

Airline stocks are likely to be active as well.

Barclays revised its rating on a slew of companies in the space, with shares of American Airlines parent AMR [AMR Loading... () ] jumping more than 4 percent in premarket trading following an upgrade to equal weight from underweight.

In the news, Bloomberg LP has reached an agreement to purchase BusinessWeek magazine from McGraw-Hill [MHP Loading... () ] for an undisclosed amount.

Royal Bank of Scotland [RBS-LN Loading... ()] is reportedly considering the sale of more than 300 of its branches in England and Wales.

And the Bank of Japan has improved its assessment of the economy, but has kept interest rates near zero and was silent on the issue of exit strategies for its corporate debt-buying programs.

— Peter Schacknow and Reuters contributed to this report.

This Week:

TUESDAY: NABE annual meeting; Bear Stearns execs on trial; Enron's Skilling resentenced; Fed's Kohn and Dudley speak; Treasury budget; Earnings from Johnson & Johnson, Intel
WEDNESDAY: Allen Stanford court appearance; Weekly mortgage applications; government's report on retail sales; import/export prices; business inventories; Fed minutes; Earnings from Abbott Labs and JPMorgan
THURSDAY: IRS amnesty for offshore accounts ends; CPI; Empire State manufacturing; weekly jobless claims; Philly Fed; weekly crude inventories; Earnings from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Nokia, IBM and AMD
FRIDAY: Industrial production; consumer sentiment; Fed's Fisher speaks; Earnings from Bank of America, GE, Halliburton and Mattel

Send comments to .