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8B Daily News – Thursday, September 19, 2013 Furniture Depot 235 So. Main St. Red Bluff 527-1657 MON.-FRI. 9:00-6:00 SAT. 9:00-5:00 SUN. 11:00-5:00 Furniture Depot is giving away ALL FREE FURNITURE! MONTH With any purchase of $1,000 or more, you'll receive a FREE $250 GIFT CERTIFICATE Good toward future purchase. Stock market sets record after Fed keeps stimulus NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market hit a record high Wednesday as investors cheered the Federal Reserve's surprise decision to keep its economic stimulus program in place. Stocks traded slightly lower throughout the morning, but took off immediately after the Fed's decision in the early afternoon. Bond yields fell sharply — their biggest move in nearly two years. The price of gold had its biggest one-day jump in four years as traders anticipated that the Fed's decision might cause inflation. Fed policymakers decided to maintain the central bank's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, a program that has been in place since December 2012. The bond purchases encouraged borrowing by keeping interest rates low and encouraging investors to buy stocks by making bonds more expensive in comparison. While the U.S. economy appeared to be improving, the bank's policymakers ''decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained'' before deciding to slow the bond purchases. The bank also cut its full- Wall Street year economic outlook for this year and next. Stock traders shrugged off the Fed's dimmer outlook and focused on the prospect of continued stimulus. The S&P 500 surged 20.76 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,725.52, slicing through its previous all-time high of 1,709.67 set on Aug. 2. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 147.21 points, or 1 percent, to 15,676.94, also above its previous record high of 15,658.36 from Aug. 2. The Nasdaq composite rose 37.94 points, 1 percent, to 3,783.64. The fate of the Fed's economic stimulus program has been the biggest question on Wall Street for months. It was widely expected that the Fed would cut back on its bond buying at the September meeting. Tom di Galoma, a bond trader at ED&F Man Capital, said he was ''completely shocked'' that the Fed decided to wait. Some investors advised caution, even as the stock market hit all-time highs. While the Fed's decision is positive for the market in the short term, ''investors need to take a step back and consider the idea that maybe the U.S economy is on weaker footing than we originally thought,'' said Marc Doss, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. Bond prices also rose sharply, sending yields lower. The yield on the 10year Treasury note fell to 2.68 percent from 2.87 percent a minute before the Fed released its statement. It was a rush into bonds not seen since October 2011. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is a benchmark for many kinds of lending rates, including home mortgages. Investors said there were two reasons why bond prices jumped Wednesday. First, since the Fed decided to keep up its bond purchase program, it keeps a big buyer of bonds in the market. Also, the Fed's lowered economic outlook gave traders another reason to seek long-term safety in their portfolios. As bond yields plunged, investors snapped up stocks that tend to pay richer dividends, such as utilities. The Dow Jones utility average jumped 3 percent, its best day in two years. Stocks of home builders also rose as investors specu- lated that the Fed's pledge to keep interest rates low would continue to benefit the housing market. Pulte Homes, Hovnanian and Toll Brothers were up more than 5 percent each, while D.R. Horton jumped nearly 7 percent. The price of gold jumped $55, or 4 percent, to $1,364 an ounce. In June, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out a possible timetable for easing up on the bond purchases, and pledged to end them by the middle of 2014, if the economy continued to improve. The Fed's next meeting is October 29-30, another opportunity for the central bank to start reducing the program. Wells Fargo's Doss and other investors said the Fed might be waiting to see what happens in Washington, D.C. in the coming weeks. A debate over the debt ceiling and a showdown between Congressional Republicans and the White House over the budget looms. Bernanke probably kept the stimulus in place because he wanted to be certain the economy was ready to function without the Fed's help, said Matt Tom, head of public fixed income at ING U.S. Investment Management. Cutting back before the economy was ready would have been much more destabilizing to the market, he said. Port Authority: $10 WTC name rights deal shameful NEW YORK (AP) — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Wednesday called a deal that sold the World Trade Center's name rights to a nonprofit organization for $10 decades ago ''a shameful episode'' and vowed to cooperate with an anticipated investigation by New York's attorney general. A newspaper report this month revealed that the name rights were sold to former Port Authority executive Guy Tozzoli in his role as head of the nonprofit World Trade Centers Association, formed to promote international trade. The Port Authority, which owns the lower Manhattan land where the Twin Towers stood until Sept. 11, 2001, is among more than 300 worldwide members that pay the WTCA a fee to use the words ''World Trade Center.'' New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has criticized the deal. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has referred the matter to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to determine whether the WTCA ''properly acquired from the Port Authority and developed the exclusive rights to the World Trade Center brand'' and whether Tozzoli or others ''improperly received the benefit of such intellectual property without right'' at the expense of the Port Authority and taxpayers. At a Port Authority board meeting on Wednesday, executive director Patrick Foye called the contract ''a shameful episode,'' and board chairman David Samson said it appears ''troubling.'' But neither could say with specificity who signed off on it. The Record newspaper, of Woodland Park, N.J., reported in its initial story on the deal that a board secretary had signed off, and Samson on Wednesday said the original transaction ''was approved by a prior board commissioner.'' Foye said it was approved by Port Authority officers but not by the full board of commissioners. Foye added that the Port Authority's executive director at the time of the deal, Stephen Berger, told him he hadn't signed off on it. Samson said he had referred the matter to the Port Authority's audit committee and counsel.