Dow moves above 17,000 as US economy picks up

The US economy yesterday held out strong prospects of recovery, with a booming job market sending unemployment rate to its lowest level in six years and the Dow surging past 17,000 for the first time.

The upbeat news comes even as reports point out that a record number of people had given up looking for employment.

The Boston Herald reported Christine Armstrong, a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley in Boston as saying this was making the market feel very good. She added this was absolutely phenomenal.

Last month saw employers add 288,000 jobs, cutting the unemployment rate to 6.1 per cent, the lowest since 2008 and the fifth straight month of job gains over 200,000, the best since the 1990s tech boom.

The markets surged on a light half day of trading before the July Fourth holiday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 92.02 points to close at a record 17,068.26.