Stocks took a breather on Monday from their recent upward trek, with the Dow and S&P 500 registering small losses on the day. On Tuesday, the Dow marched ahead to yet another 5-year high on little economic news of note. Stocks gave back some of Tuesday’s gains on Wednesday following the Fed’s statement that the economy has stalled recently, as well as a preliminary report showing that the 2012 fourth quarter GDP declined slightly rather than expand by 1.0% as predicted. On Thursday the month ended on a down note, as new weekly jobless claims rose. This was all forgotten on Friday, as the major indexes jumped more than a percent on positive job and manufacturing reports. The Dow reached the 14000 mark for the first time since October 2007.
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