Stock Market

So the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record 14,253.77 on Tuesday. And lo and behold, on the same day, Ferrari unveiled its newest supercar , the $1-million-plus LaFerrari. And it's a hybrid, no less. (And yes, that's its real name; if you're fortunate enough to be able to buy one, I guess you won't mind the laughter when you say, “How do you like my new Ferrari LaFerrari?” You've got to admit, though, the world seems just a bit rosier when the stock market is soaring and a new Ferrari is roaring.

NEW YORK -- Bullish retail investors are helping push stocks near all-time highs, according to retail brokerage TD Ameritrade. Retail investors have steadily been increasing their exposure to the stock market over the last seven months, said Steve Quirk, senior vice president of TD Ameritrade's Trader Group. Investors seemed to have shrugged off the looming spending cuts because of U.S. budget "sequestration" and the recent Italian election that threatened to rekindle European instability as the continent tries to overcome its debt crisis and recession.

Officially, the Federal Reserve isn't supposed to worry about keeping stock prices flying high. But when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was asked about the market's outlook last week on Capitol Hill, he sounded like a lot of bullish Wall Street investment strategists. "I don't see much evidence of an equity bubble," he told the Senate Banking Committee in his semiannual testimony on Fed policy. Stocks "don't appear overvalued given earnings and interest rates. " More important for the markets, Bernanke pledged to continue the Fed's policy of pumping colossal sums into the financial system to support the economic recovery.

The stock market suffered its worst drubbing of the year as investors grew worried about deepening fiscal gridlock in Washington and renewed political instability in Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 216 points, a sign that the market's strong advance early in the year is giving way to doubts about whether stock prices got ahead of economic underpinnings. It is an abrupt change from last week, when investors were expecting the stock market to hit record highs.

WASHINGTON -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the stock market reaction to the large federal budget cuts slated for March 1 will determine how much they affect economic growth. The $85 billion in cuts this fiscal year, part of a nearly $1.2-trillion spending reduction over the next decade, will have a negative effect, he told CNBC on Friday. And he believes the White House and Congress will not come together to prevent them. "I think the odds of it occurring are very high," Greenspan said of the cuts, known as sequestration.

The Chinese new year, the Year of the Snake, could leave the stock market snake-bitten. Sunday ushered in the Chinese New Year but, investors may wish it hadn't. The Year of the Snake is the only one of the 12 Chinese lunar calendar years in which the Standard & Poor's 500 index has a losing record, according to researcher Capital IQ. Since 1900, the benchmark index is down an average of 2.9% in the Year of the Snake, according to Capital IQ. It has risen in only three of the nine snake years since 1900, marking the worst performance of the any of the named lunar years.

That was fast. After the Dow Jones industrial average topped the 14,000-point level Friday for the first time in more than five years, the blue-chip index reversed course Monday morning. The average fell about 110 points, or 0.8%, after the stock market opened and was hovering at about 13,900. Still, the Dow is up more than 6% so far this year. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nearly 10 points in early trading Monday to about 1,503. And the Nasdaq composite was off nearly 15 points to about 3,164.

NEW YORK -- The Dow Jones industrial average broke through 14,000 for the first time in more than five years, fueled by renewed investor confidence and low interest rates. The Dow broke through the milestone in early trading Friday for the first time since October 2007, following a gradual climb for stocks underway since the start of the year. The Dow quickly teetered below the 14,000 milestone, however. The Dow was up 127 points, or 0.9%, to 13,989. The federal government reported Friday the U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate edged up to 7.9%.

NEW YORK -- The Dow Jones industrial average didn't crack 14,000 on Tuesday but it nonetheless closed at its highest level in more than five years. The Dow gained 72 points, or 0.5%, to finish at 13,954 Tuesday, just shy of a milestone not reached since October 2007. The stock market's slow, grinding march upward in recent weeks has been fueled by growing optimism now that Washington has defused the so-called fiscal cliff and investors know how the government will tax capital gains.

NEW YORK -- Stocks may be near record highs, but they are not terribly expensive, at least by one measure. Last week the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 1,500 for the first time in five years. This week the Dow Jones industrial average has been flirting with 14,000, a level it hasn't seen since October 2007. QUIZ: How much do you know about the stock market? In early trading Tuesday, the Dow added 22 points, or 0.2%, to 13,905. Stocks are a bit pricey relative to their earnings, but are nowhere near the overheated levels they've seen before, said Robert Shiller, a famed Yale University economist who identified the stock market and housing bubbles of the last decade.