Midday Dow at 12,807.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks climbed for a third straight day on
Monday, the longest stretch of gains the market has had in nearly a
month.
Major indexes opened mixed but moved higher in midday trading,
putting the market further away from its longest weekly losing
streak since 2002. Last week stocks eked out tiny gains, giving the
Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index
their first rises after a six-week slump.
The downturn, which began in early May, brought the S&P 500
close to its average level over the prior 200 days. So long as the
index doesn’t sink far below that level, many technical traders see
it as a sign to start buying stocks again. The S&P is now 6
percent below the 2011 high it reached on April 29.
“In the short term, stocks have been oversold, and you’re going to
get some sort of bounce, whether justified or not, just for
technical reasons,” said Paul Simon, chief investment officer for
Tactical Allocation Group, which has $1.5 billion in assets under
advisement.
The S&P 500 index is up 7 points, 0.6 percent, at 1,278. The
Dow Jones industrial average is up 71 points, or 0.6 percent, to
12,076. The Nasdaq is up 16, or 0.6 percent, to 2,632.
