way. 16 republicans joined democrats in voting down gop-led filibuster that attempted to stop the debate from taking place. senators from both parties thanked relatives of the victims of the connecticut school massacre for lobbying lawmakers to at least bring legislation to the senate floor for discussion. in darkness for 20 years when it comes to gun control. darkness. the lies. the misinformation. and when people see you it means much more than when they hear me or anybody else. so, we ve made a huge difference. the amendment to be debated include expanding background checks on gun buyers and banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines. another record-breaking dow day for the dow and the s&p 500. the dow is now within reach of the 15,000 mark. closing at 14,85 yesterday. that s two record high finishing in the last two days for the blue chip index. that is the kind we like to see. the s&p 500 closing at an all-time high yesterday, less
now to our three big money headlines. wall street rally, holiday hiring, and what s going on with american airlines? joining me now a retail and economic analyst. i m glad to have you here. there s something fun to talk about. wall street s highest close in years. in five years, actually. hit 13,600, around there. it s been on the up and up from thursday or friday it went up 35 points. and a lot of people are saying it had to do with those unemployment numbers. being at 7%. there are also other reasons why. i also wanted to mention the blue chip stocks as well. these are the blue chip index stocks they cover like heinz, general motors. stocks that have been doing well for awhile. that index was also up around 69 points. that s good. okay. what about the holiday hiring?
optimism. last week the blue chip index flirted with 13,000. yesterday the dow rode a surge in the economy to cross a threshold not seen since before the great recession. fueling yesterday s rally, a swell of consumer confidence in february driven by improving job prospects and an upbeat overall attitude about the nation s economy. for instance, johnson and johnson added 5.5 points to the dow s crucial rise. microsoft had the biggest percentage gain a among the 30 stocks adding 2%. tech shares added a boost. sending the semiconductor index higher as a whole. earnings front, office depot shares, they shot up 19% thanks to its impressive quarterly report. on the down side, dream works animation tumbling in late trade after a weak earnings report and forecast after the bell there. new york based cable vision seeing its stocks slide, too. 10% after reporting an increase in capitol expenses last
of good news. take a look at this. this is obviously cisco s share price. it s been the worst performer in the dow s blue chip index so far this year. shares are down 12% since the start of 2011 and those results while down have inspired a little more confidence basically. cisco s stock up by 4.5% in the afterhours trading. what s better than silver or gold? google says it s chrome. and it s hoping millions of consumers feel the same way. that s next right here on cnn.
morgan is one of the healthiest banks out there and not surprising to see them to begin to recover early and to begin hiring again so early, so it s rivals may not be so quick. one thing is certain, earnings have to pick up before we see any broad-based hiring. so at least we re moving in the right direction. just to give you an indication of how the market is today, intel shares are up 1 1/4%. both the stocks were up stronger before the open. the blue chip index up about a third of 1% and we re still over the 11,000 mark. the nasdaq is also up about a third of 1%. a good day so far. so far so good. thank you. we re talking about the market rally on our blog this morning. we want to know from you, have you jumped back into the market? if not, what will it take? what are you doing? go to cnn.com/fredericka, post your thoughts and i ll read your comments later on in the hour, what s left of it. the tea party express has rolled into boston. the group is holding a big rally