– National
Stocks had a bullish start to the new year Tuesday, with the Dow soaring nearly 130 points on signs the Federal Reserve is nearly done raising interest rates and by energy shares’ gains as oil prices edged higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 129.91, or 1.2 percent, to 10,847.41. The S & P; 500 gained 20.51, or 1.6 percent, to 1,268.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 38.42, or 1.7 percent, to 2,243.74.
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– Local
Local movers were led by Digital Insight Corp., which rose 10.5 percent to $35.39. On the down side, Arden Group Inc. slipped 1.5 percent to $89.60 and American Business Bank fell 2.5 percent to $39.
Shares of energy producers jumped as crude futures rose above $63 a barrel, a two-month high. L.A.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. gained 7.6 percent to $85.97.
KB Home and Ryland Group Inc. rose 4.1 percent to $75.66 and 4.3 percent to $75.26, respectively, after the Commerce Department reported construction spending increased 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.146 trillion. Much of the strength came in private non-residential construction.
Walt Disney Co. edged up 1.8 percent to $24.40 after it announced it will now make additional programming available for download on the iTunes music store. The new offerings will come from ESPN and ABC Sports, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, ABC Family, ABC News, Buena Vista Television, Disney Channel, and SOAPnet, as well as content produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation.
Shares of Electro Rent Corp. lost 0.3 percent to $14.87 after the Van Nuys-based electronic equipment leasing company’s stock rating was downgraded to “hold” from “buy” by Matrix USA.
