Posted: Jul 2, 2012 8:31 AM by KPAX News Staff
Updated: Jul 2, 2012 8:35 AM
The stock market is coming off its best month since October and we'll see if stocks can continue the positive momentum this week with reports on factory orders, construction spending, auto sales and June unemployment.
Stocks rallied Friday after European leaders agreed on a plan to help the region's struggling banks. The Dow Jones Industrials rocketed 278 points while the NASDAQ had its best day of the year with a gain of 85 points. So far this year, the Dow is up 5.4% and the NASDAQ is up a whopping 12.6%.
Oil and gold also rallied. Investors believe that a cure for Europe's debt problems will remove one of the major drags on the global economy. Crude jumped more than 9% Friday while gold climbed 3.5%.
Tax fraud is on the rise. The IRS has identified more than one million returns as being potentially fraudulent, that's up 72% from the previous year. Experts say the increase in tax fraud can be attributed to more electronic filing and a growing number of people using debit cards to receive refunds.
U.S. manufacturing slowed sharply in June to a level that indicates the sector is now contracting, marking the end of almost three years of growth in domestic manufacturing. The Institute for Supply Management reported Monday that its monthly index fell to 49.7 in June from a 53.5 reading in May. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector.
information from CNN included in this report
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