U.S. Stocks Rise as Technology Shares Rally Amid Data

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

Hewlett-Packard jumped 9.1 percent after the maker of personal computers posted revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. rose at least 3.4 percent, leading a rally among refiners. Schlumberger Ltd. and Noble Energy Inc. fell at least 1.7 percent as crude slid to the lowest level in almost six months.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to a record 1,807.23 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24.53 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,097.33, an all-time high. About 4.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the slowest trading since Aug. 26. 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.

(Source: Bloomberg)