Dow hits highest close since May ’08

Dow hits highest close since May ’08

NEW YORK

A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years propelled the Dow Jones industrial average Friday to its highest close since May 2008, before the financial meltdown later that year. The Nasdaq composite index hit an 11-year high.

The Dow jumped 156.82 points to 12,862.23, its highest mark since May 19, 2008, about four months before Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed. In May 2008, credit markets were tightening up, subprime mortgages were going sour, and Bear Stears already had collapsed.

Before the market opened, the Labor Department said the economy added 243,000 jobs in January. It was the strongest job growth in nine months. The increase in hiring pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009.

Obama pushes for vets jobs program

WASHINGTON

In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.

The president also will seek more grant money for programs that allow local communities to hire more police officers and firefighters.

The efforts, which Obama first announced in his State of the Union address last week, are geared particularly to those veterans who served after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group experiencing an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, versus 8.7 percent for nonveterans, according to the government’s jobs report for January.

Micron CEO dies in plane crash

BOISE, Idaho

The head of memory-chip maker Micron, long known for taking risks in stunt piloting, died Friday when a small experimental plane he was piloting steeply banked, stalled and crashed near an Idaho runway.

Steve Appleton, who survived a similar crash eight years ago and had a reputation as a hard-driving daredevil, was the only person aboard the plane when witnesses said it crashed shortly after its second take-off attempt in Boise, according to safety investigators.

Micron shares were up 23 cents at $7.95 Friday before trading was halted for the announcement.

Ex-gov, team owner may bid on papers

PHILADELPHIA

Former Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider are leading a “civic-minded” effort to buy Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers, Rendell said Friday.

The six-person group submitted a nonbinding “letter of interest” Thursday in Philadelphia Media Network, which operates The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

News reports surfaced this week that two hedge funds with major stakes in the company want to sell. The firms, Alden Global Capital and Angelo Gordon, had led the creditors’ $139 million takeover of the company at a September 2010 bankruptcy auction.

Associated Press