Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/51836
8B Daily News – Wednesday, January 4, 2012 NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market got a big jump on a better year. After a flat 2011, stocks rose sharply Tues- day in the first trading of 2012 after investors returned from the holiday and found encouraging economic reports from the United States and around the world. The Dow Jones indus- Wall Street's happy new year: Dow up almost 180 Wall Street trial average rose 179.82 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,397.38, its highest close in more than five months. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a broader gauge than the Dow, fin- ished up almost 20 points at 1,277. The S&P fin- ished 2011 almost exactly where it started — down a sliver, 0.04 of a point. The market may have gotten an extra boost from what's known as the Janu- ary effect: Investors sell stocks at the end of the year to lock in losses for YEARBOOK This would probably be it: If Corning had a tax purposes, then come back in January and buy stocks again. The effect could be more pronounced this year because the stock market was so volatile in 2011 and more investors had losses to take, said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at Standard & Poor's Capital IQ. Money managers also usually get a fresh infu- sion of cash at the begin- ning of the year because workers who maxed out their contributions to retirement accounts well before the previous year ended start contributing again. These investors are back hunting for bargains, he said: ''Investors are a lot like dieters and look to January as a new begin- ning.'' January is a fairly good predictor of the year for U.S. stocks. Only seven times since 1950 has Jan- uary turned out to be a ''major error'' in predict- ing the year to come, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. In other words, City and County Information Recreation Guide Local places of interest City Map & Street Guide Schools Directory Church Guide Public Services Calendar of Events …and more! Glossy stock Magazine Format 9,000 distribution 6,800 as a special insert to the 2,200 print for distribution to visitors, new and prospective residents through Chambers of Commerce, hotels and Information Centers D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 24/7 presence online version on www.redbluffdailynews.com for a full year, with links provided to Corning Chamber of Commerce, Corning City and County websites. Tehama County Businesses: Make sure YOU are part of it! Advertising Space Reservation Deadline: Tuesday, January 10 at 5 PM Advertising Representative Today! 527-2151 Call your Daily News whichever direction the market has gone in Janu- ary, the rest of the year has usually followed. The ''major errors'' are usually extraordinary events, the almanac points out. In 2001, for example, the S&P 500 rose 3.5 per- cent in January, but the market was rocked by the Sept. 11 attacks and fin- ished the year down 13 percent. The first day of the year is less useful for for- tune-telling than the first month. If you were to bet on whether the market would finish the year up or down based on how it performed the first day, you would be right only about half the time. And there's no special power to January. A strong market in any sin- gle month makes it more likely that the market will be higher over the 12 months to come, Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG, pointed out in a note to clients. ''As goes any month, so goes any 12-month period,'' he said. ''This is not the exclusive province of January.'' Predictive ability aside, the Dow's 179-point gain was its third-biggest for the first trading day of the year and its biggest gain on the first day since 2009, when the Dow climbed 258 points. Tuesday was also the fourth time in a row the market rose on opening day. On Jan. 3, 2011, on its way to flat-lining for the year, the S&P rose 14 points. Bank stocks and mate- rials and industrial com- panies posted the largest gains. Alcoa, which pro- duces aluminum, rose 6.7 percent, JPMorgan Chase rose 5.2 percent, and Bank of America rose 4.3 percent, the biggest win- ners among the 30 stocks Gift Certificates awarded To four Online survey-takers! $100 Four of the 100+ local folks who completed our recent online readership/shopping survey by Pulse Research, Inc. were chosen at random by computer to receive $100 gift certificates good at any Tehama County business. Gift certificates were presented to the following survey respondents: Edith C. Pasillas Carol M. Roberson Nellie Lee Barber Patricia Van Atten Thanks to all who took the time to take our online survey! D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY www.redbluffdailynews.com key Persian Gulf oil ship- ments after Iran warned the United States to stay out of the strategically important Strait of Hor- muz waterway. in the Dow. The market's gains were broad. All but four of the Dow 30 finished higher. Of the 10 cate- gories of stocks in the S&P 500 index, one, utili- ties, finished lower. Utili- ties are traditionally con- servative stocks to own. Investors seized on the latest signs of strength in the U.S. economy: Manu- facturing expanded in December at the fastest rate in six months, and construction spending rose in November as builders spent more on single-family homes, apartments and remodel- ing projects. There was also hope from Europe's largest economy, Germany, which reported that the average number of people unemployed there last year was the lowest in two decades. Germany has an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent, compared with 8.6 percent in the United States. And a Chinese manu- facturing index rose in December, reversing a November slide and rais- ing hopes that China's economic slowdown is under control. The economic reports overshadowed, at least for a day, concerns in the global markets about the European debt crisis, which will probably be the main catalyst for mar- kets in the weeks ahead. Earlier Tuesday, the government of debt-crip- pled Greece warned that it would have to ditch the euro currency if the details of a second inter- national bailout worth $169 billion can't be worked out. Investors have been afraid that a Greek exit from the euro currency union would further dis- rupt the Greek economy and cause heavy losses for European banks that hold Greek government debt, perhaps triggering a glob- al financial crisis. The second Greek bailout was approved last October, but Greece still has to persuade its credi- tors, including banks and investment firms, to take steep losses on their hold- ings of Greek debt. Greece also says more tax increases and spend- ing cuts may be required. A spokesman for the Greek government, Pan- telis Kapsis, said negotia- tions in the next three or four months with interna- tional debt monitors will ''determine everything.'' The euro rose to $1.3056 from $1.2929 late Monday. Last Thursday, it hit a 15-month low of $1.2857 after an Italian bond auction disappointed investors. On Tuesday, the better economic data had investors more willing to buy riskier currencies. The price of oil rose $4.13 to $102.96 per bar- rel in its first trading of 2012. Tensions grew over The dollar and Trea- sury prices fell as investors shed low-risk assets. The yield on the U.S. government's 10- year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction from its price, rose to 1.95 percent from 1.88 percent late Friday. Gold rose 2.2 percent. In other stock trading, the Nasdaq closed up 43.57, or 1.7 percent, at 2,648.72. U.S. investors were also reacting to news they had missed out on during the holidays. The markets were open last week, but trading volume was only about half its normal level. — Last Friday, a federal court delayed the imple- mentation of new air-pollu- tion regulations. So coal stocks did well Tuesday: Peabody Energy Corp. rose over 9 percent and James River Coal Co. soared close to 11 percent, while Alpha Natural Resources Inc. gained 8 percent. — Last Thursday, a JPMorgan analyst told clients that two wireless companies, Leap Wireless International Inc. and MetroPCS Communica- tions Inc., could be targeted by AT&T or T-Mobile for takeovers. MetroPCS rose 8 percent Tuesday, and Leap rose over 6 percent. In other corporate news: — Chesapeake Energy Corp. rose almost 6 per- cent after the energy com- pany sold a part of its Ohio oil and gas business to a unit of French energy company Total SA for $2.32 billion. — Rambus Inc. jumped 7 percent after the technology licensing company raised its fourth- quarter revenue forecast to $83 million from an earlier range of $66 mil- lion to $71 million. Starbucks to raise prices in certain regions NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks said Tuesday it is raising some prices region- ally as it faces rising ingredient costs. The Seattle coffee chain is raising prices about 1 percent in the Northeast and Sunbelt regions. Starbucks wouldn't disclose all of the states its raising prices, but the regions include New York; Wash- ington, D.C.; and most Southern states. They exclude California and Florida. Other cities where it will raise prices include Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M. The price for a ''tall'' coffee will go up 10 cents in the regions, and the chain will raise prices on about six other bever- ages. But beverages that are ''grande,'' the next size up, won't change. Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson says the prices reflect competition in certain markets and higher costs for coffee, fuel and other commodities. The last across-the-board price increase was in 2007. Starbucks has been a standout among its peers in the tough global economy because consumers have returned to small luxuries like lattes.