Dow crosses 13,000 briefly

NEW YORK (AP):

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 13,000 on Tuesday for the first time since before the 2008 financial crisis.

The Dow passed 13,000 about two hours into the trading day, then quickly dropped back. Its last time above 13,000 during a trading day was May 20, 2008, four months before the Lehman Brothers investment bank went under.

US stocks got help from a long-awaited bailout deal for Greece (see related story on C8), aimed at preventing a potentially catastrophic default, and from strong corporate earnings reports at home.

The Dow eventually closed at 12,965.69; Nasdaq at 2,948.57 and S&P 500 at 1,362.21 points.

The last time the Dow was above 13,000, the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent, far below today's 8.3 per cent. The Great Recession was six months old, with the worst still to come.

The 13,000 level is a psychological milepost, but in a market built on perception, it could influence more cautious investors to pump more money back into the stock market, analysts said.

Just last summer, the Dow unburdened itself of 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. It fell as low as 10,655 in the fall, after a downgrade of the United States credit rating and a fight over the federal government's borrowing limit.

The 13,000 marker is a 22 per cent rally from that low. The Dow is within 1,200 points of its all-time closing high - 14,164, set October 9, 2007.

Among big movers Tuesday:

Wal-Mart fell four per cent after missing analysts' expectations for revenue and per-share earnings by one cent. Wal-Mart reported a 15 per cent drop in quarterly profits.

Home Depot rose two per cent after beating analysts' expectations for revenue and per-share earnings. The home-repair giant has been hurt by the dour housing market, which has led homeowners to take on fewer expensive home renovations.

Barnes & Noble climbed five per cent despite missing expectations on revenue and per-share earnings, as rising costs offset higher sales of both traditional books and digital books. But investors seemed encouraged that the bookstore chain plans to introduce a cheaper Nook to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire.