U.S. stocks rose in a holiday-shortened session Thursday, lifting the Dow industrials above 17,000, after the government reported the economy created a better-than-expected 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since 2008. The U.S. economy has created more than 200,000 jobs in each of the past five months, a streak not seen since 1999-2000 at the height of the technology boom. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 6.1 percent. In other U.S. economic news, the trade deficit narrowed in May as exports hit a record high, the massive service sector continued its long expansion at a slightly slower rate in June, and jobless claims were little changed last week. The U.S. dollar gained versus the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude-oil futures fell 70 cents to $103.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $9.90 to $1,321 an ounce. After a 98-point jump, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 92.92, or 0.5 percent, to 17,068.26. Twenty-seven of the index's 30 components gained, led by investment bank Goldman Sachs and heavy-machinery maker Caterpillar. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.82, or 0.6 percent, to 1,985.44, another record high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 28.19, or 0.6 percent, to 4,485.93.
