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| Morocco and Spain (NASA, International Space Station, 12/31/11) (Photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center) |
News from Spain helped lift stocks after the debt-laden country said it was considering freezing pensions and speeding up a planned rise in the retirement age as it raced to cut spending and meet conditions of an expected international sovereign aid package. The moves, taken with the European Central Bank’s efforts to spur growth in the euro zone and the Fed’s recent announcement of a third round of quantitative easing, continued to underpin gains.
“The market is predominantly looking forward to the Federal Reserve and the QE infinity that the Fed promised, and the globally coordinated easing cycle,” said Steve Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments in New York. This week, though, the market’s action has been muted, with the SP 500 barely moving 0.6 percent in either direction daily.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slipped 17.46 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 13,579.47. The Standard Poor’s 500 Index .SPX dipped just 0.11 of a point, or 0.01 percent, to finish at 1,460.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 4.00 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 3,179.96.Earlier, the SP 500 hit an intraday high of 1,467.07, while the Nasdaq reached a session high of 3,196.93.
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