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JOB MARKET GIVES STOCKS A LIFT

 
Published April 26, 2013

NEW YORK - The engines driving the stock market were more tepid than turbocharged Thursday, but they were enough to help stocks rise for a fifth straight day.

The three major U.S. stock indexes all closed higher as good news on the job market and healthy earnings from name-brand companies like Royal Caribbean and Harley-Davidson encouraged investors.

The Standard & Poor's 500 has risen every day since Friday, a record not matched since early March.

The forces driving the gains, however, were tenuous, market watchers said. Hiring remains sluggish, even with the drop in unemployment claims last week. The S&P's five-day winning streak is hardly a blockbuster: on Wednesday it rose just .01 point. And while companies are turning in profits that are beating the estimates of financial analysts, many are missing revenue forecasts.

The good news for the job market comes after a series of setbacks. In March, employers added only 88,000 jobs, down from an average of 220,000 for the previous four months. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent, but only because more people stopped looking for jobs.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose as much as 91 points before giving up most of that gain. Investors were underwhelmed by what ultimately turned out to be a mixed bag on earnings. The Dow closed up 24.50 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,700.80.

The S&P 500 rose 6.37 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,585.16. Nine of the S&P's 10 industry groups rose, led by telecommunications. The Nasdaq composite index rose 20.34, or 0.6 percent, to 3,289.99.