U.S. Stocks Advance as Technology Rallies Amid Growth Optimism

Bloomberg (28/11) --  U.S. stocks rose, extending a third monthly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Hewlett-Packard Co. led a technology rally while data on employment and consumer confidence boosted optimism in the economy.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent to a record 1,807.22 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24.46 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,097.26, also an all-time high. U.S. equity markets will be closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday. Today’s data “is in some sense a re-affirmation that things are going along pretty decently,” Bill Schultz, chief investment officer who oversees about $1.1 billion at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone. “Are we going to get higher rates again? Is tapering still out there? The market is playing with what’s going to come next and how we position going forward given a number of uncertainty still sitting out there.” The S&P 500 has climbed 2.9 percent in November as data on housing and retail sales exceeded economists’ forecasts, stoking optimism that the world’s largest economy will sustain growth when the Federal Reserve starts reducing its monetary stimulus. Data today showed fewer Americans than projected filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is showing resilience. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment in November unexpectedly rose to 75.1 from 73.2 a month earlier. The median forecast of 65 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 73.1 after a preliminary reading of 72.