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VOL. 36 | NO. 49 | Friday, December 7, 2012
National Business
Stocks move higher as US jobs picture improves
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing mostly higher on Wall Street after the government reported job growth that was better than economists had anticipated.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 81 points to 13,155 Friday, ending the week with a gain of 1 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4 points to close at 1,418. The Nasdaq composite edged down 11 points to 2,978, weighed down by another loss in Apple, its biggest component.
The Labor Department said the U.S. added 146,000 jobs last month, more than expected. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, but mainly because more people gave up looking for work.
Rising stocks outnumbered falling ones on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was slightly lighter than the recent average, 3.1 billion shares.