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8B Daily News – Wednesday, February 8, 2012 NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks resumed their slow but steady climb Tuesday as Greece appeared close to announcing a deal with creditors to cut its debt. The Dow Jones industrial aver- age ended at its highest level since May 2008. Stock indexes rose after a report that Greece and the investors who bought its government bonds were close to a deal to reduce what Greece owes. Greece's crushing debt has unnerved financial markets around the world for two years. ''Just some kind of opti- mism overseas is going to be positive, considering Stock end higher, erasing early losses Wall Street rally away from its all-time high. many didn't think anything was going to come to fruition,'' said Stephen J. Carl, head equity trader at The Williams Capital Group. A report that job open- ings soared to the highest level in almost three years in December also helped the U.S. market. The Dow rose 33.07 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 12,878.20. It has not closed higher since May 19, 2008, four months before the financial crisis. The Dow is roughly a 10 percent The average fell 17 points to start the week. On Tuesday, it was down as much as 62 points in the first half-hour of trading. McDonald's rose 1.4 percent, best among the 30 stocks in the Dow, to $100.91, close to its 52- week high. Coca-Cola rose 0.8 percent after it reported better profits than analysts were expecting. In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 2.72 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,347.05. The Nasdaq composite rose 2.09 points, or less than 0.1 per- cent, to 2,904.08. The Nas- daq is about a point shy of its best close since Decem- ber 2000. The jump in U.S. job openings was the latest sign that the job market is improving. The Dow climbed 156 points Friday after the government report- ed that the U.S. unemploy- ment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January, the lowest in almost three years. Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group in West- port, Conn., said that while investors are becoming more optimistic about the economy, there are still signs that they're allocating money cautiously. The utilities sector was the best performer in the S&P 500, indicating that investors are hanging on to stocks they consider to be relatively safe. In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10- year Treasury note rose to 1.98 percent from 1.90 per- cent late Monday. Demand for bonds waned as investors became more con- fident that Greece would reach a deal. A relatively weak auction of three-year Treasury notes also pushed bond prices lower. The euro rose to a two- year high against the dollar as worries eased about Greece's and Europe's debt problems. The euro rose 1.4 cents against the dollar to $1.33 in afternoon trading. Dow approaches 13,000, and maybe a record to come NEW YORK (AP) — It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession. Now the Dow is within reach of the rarefied 13,000 mark — a level it hasn't seen since May 2008, four months before the financial system almost came apart. A strong one-day rally — caused by a deal on bailout money for Greece, perhaps, or an unexpectedly positive economic report — could put it over the top. What's more, the aver- age is just a 10 percent rally from an all-time high. And 10 percent rallies can hap- pen fast these days. The stomach-turning summer is a bad memory. Europe appears to be get- ting its act together, last summer's downgrade of the U.S.' credit rating was quickly forgotten, Washing- ton is mostly behaving, and recession fears are gone. ''There are signs that the economy is getting back on its feet and the market is reacting to that,'' says John Prestbo, executive director of Dow Jones Indexes. ''The mood is just better in this country than it has been for a while.'' On Wall Street, too. The Dow traded Tuesday at 12,878, a 21 percent rally from Oct. 3, its low point for last year. In January, the average rose more or less in a straight line and added 3.4 percent, its best start to a year since 1997. From here, the record is tantalizingly close — 14,164.53, reached Oct. 9, 2007, when the investment houses Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers still exist- ed and the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. A 10 percent surge may seem like a lot, but it's real- ly not. The Dow has gained almost 15 percent since Nov. 25, just 10 weeks ago. Though there's a long way to go to get the country back to economic health, there are pockets of encour- agement. Unemployment is still 8.3 percent, but it's the lowest since February 2009. Economic output grew every quarter last year. VOTING STARTED MON. FEB. 6! Vote for your favorite Tehama County Businesses! Online Ballots Only at www.redbluffdailynews.com at random from all eligible ballots on March 1. Each will receive a $100 Shopping Spree at the Tehama County business of their choice! Five Lucky Voters will be selected