Stock market logs sixth straight gain following hiring surge in February; S&P 500 nears record

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The stock market is logging its sixth straight gain after the U.S. government reported a surge in hiring in February.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 67 points to 14,397.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose nearly seven points to 1,551. The Nasdaq composite rose 12 points to 3,244.

On Tuesday the Dow broke through the all-time high it reached in October 2007. The S&P is now just 14 points below its own record.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 per cent from 7.9 per cent in January. That’s far better than economists expected.

Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was about average at 3.5 billion shares.

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