Wall Street: US stocks have their best quarter in 14 years
Occupy Wall Street protesters protest in Union Square at the end of a march from Zuccotti Park on March 24 in New York.
The economy might not be back but — for the moment, at least — Wall Street sure is.
After rousing closes today by the Dow and S&P 500, US stocks recorded their biggest first-quarter point gain in history, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 66 points at 13,212. With a gain of 994.48 points for the quarter, that was also the best first-quarter percentage gain (it’s up 8.15 percent) in 14 years, according to The Journal.
The Standard & Poor’s index of 500 large cap common stocks rose six points to 1,409 and the Nasdaq composite was down by a single point at 3,094, a 151-point, or 12 percent gain, making this its best quarter since 2009.
While the Nasdaq composite index was dipped 3.79 points, or 0.12 percent, to 3,091.57, this still represented a gain of nearly 19 percent, according to Reuters. CNBC said this was the Nasdaq’s best quarterly performance in 21 years.
The gainers on the Dow, which has now logged six consecutive months of gains, were lead by Disney (up 1.79 percent, or $0.77, to $43.78) and Hewlett Packard (up 1.36 percent, or $0.32, to $22.83), according to CNBC.
There appeared to be consensus in that recent gains were spurred onward by better-than-expected US economic data and the after the eurozone agreed to raise a ceiling on a bailout fund.
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According to The Associated Press, the Commernce Department said consumer spending rose in February at the strongest rate since July. The best job growth in two years also contributed to a rosier picture, the news agency said.
In a more sobering note, however, the AP said Americans had spent more even though their incomes had not risen for two months. Gasoline accounted for some of this as prices are the highest on record for this time of year.
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