Blue Chips Jump 889.35 Points

(NEW YORK) — A steep fall in commodity prices pulled down energy and mining stocks for a second day in a row on Monday. Gold plunged to $1,400 an ounce for the first time since March 2011 as a sell-off in metals continued from last week. Oil prices hit their lowest level since mid-December. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 89 points at 14,773 shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, a drop of 0.6 percent. Caterpillar led the Dow lower, losing 3 percent to $82.87. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 12 points to 1,577, a loss of 0.7 percent.

TORONTO — The Toronto stock market closed lower Wednesday as investors looked to another day of mixed earnings reports and a vote by Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Here are the closing numbers TSX — 12,794.05 -30.58 -0.2% S&P 500 — 1,494.81 +2.25 +0.2% Dow — 13,779.33 +67.12 +0.5% Nasdaq — 3,153.67 +10.49 +0.3%

U.S. stocks were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed for four straight weeks to an all-time high, as investors weighed corporate acquisitions. Yahoo! Inc. rose 0.5% after agreeing to buy blogging network Tumblr Inc. for about US$1.1-billion. Actavis Inc. rallied 3.1% as it reached a deal to acquire Warner Chilcott Plc. Websense Inc. jumped 29 after agreeing to be bought by private- equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Red Hat Inc. slipped 3.8% amid an analyst downgrade.

Gary Dorsch (Global Money Trends) submits: One year ago, few traders were expecting a pullback of any significant degree, with the Dow Jones Industrial perched above the 11,000-level.

Initial Reaction The establishment survey showed a gain of 165,000 a reasonably good but not spectacular print. In contrast, the household survey showed a huge gain of 293,000 jobs. Once again we see a huge surge in involuntary part-time employment of 278,000. Voluntary part-time employment rose by another 163,000. Voluntary plus involuntary part-time employment rose by a whopping 441,000 jobs. Take away part-time jobs and there is not all that much to brag about. Indeed, full-time employment fell once again, this month by 148,000. 

(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones industrial average has reached another milestone, recording its longest winning streak since 1996. The index rose for the tenth straight day Thursday, gaining 83.86 points to close at 14,539.14. That’s an increase of 0.6 percent. The last time the Dow knocked out 10 straight days of gains was November 1996. Back then, Internet companies were still lining up to go public and President Bill Clinton had just won another term in the White House. “It’s just a good run,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG.

(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones industrial average has reached another milestone, recording its longest winning streak since 1996. The index rose for the tenth straight day Thursday, gaining 83.86 points to close at 14,539.14. That’s an increase of 0.6 percent. The last time the Dow knocked out 10 straight days of gains was November 1996. Back then, Internet companies were still lining up to go public and President Bill Clinton had just won another term in the White House. “It’s just a good run,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG.

By Cameron Kaine:You'll always know that you are in a bull market whenever each trading day follows one where records and weekly, monthly and yearly highs are always mentioned. Earlier this week, for example, where both the Dow and S&P 500 reached key decade-old milestones and yet another on Friday as the Dow surged higher closing near its 4-year high. However, this time it was the Nasdaq's turn, after its index hit an 11-year high. This time the optimism was spurred job growth. The U.S.