Dow Jones Industrial Average

Now that a trip to Bankruptcy Court has become a near-certainty for General Motors Corp., the automaker's removal from the Dow Jones industrial average also appears all but inevitable. "Certainly the march of events suggests that change might be imminent" in the 30-stock index, John Prestbo, executive director of Dow Jones Indexes, said Wednesday. That's because bankruptcy and nationalization -- the U.S.

The stock market's earnings-driven rally stalled Friday after Microsoft and Amazon.com reported weak quarterly sales. The Dow Jones industrials rose 23.95 points, or 0.3%, to 9,093.24, its highest finish since Nov. 5. The S&P 500 index rose 2.97 points, or 0.3%, to 979.26. The Nasdaq composite index, however, fell 7.64 points, or 0.4%, to 1,965.96, breaking a 12-day winning streak, as tech stocks lost ground. The Russell 2,000 index of smaller companies rose 0.5%.

The Dow Jones industrial average barreled past the 10,000-point milestone for the first time in a year Wednesday, a testament to Wall Street's powerful rebound from the financial crisis -- but also to a lost decade that has left many people worse off than they were 10 years ago. Robust profits at banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. and tech bellwether Intel Corp. drove the blue-chip index up almost 145 points to 10,015.86, underscoring the stock market's growing consensus that the punishing global recession is giving way. The turnaround is all the more remarkable given the severity of the bear market, which sent the Dow plunging 54% from October 2007 through early March amid falling home values, a collapse in mortgage lending and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.