U.S. stocks on Wednesday climbed to two-week highs after a cease-fire deal was reported in the Gaza Strip, with the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite extending gains into a fourth session. U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and Friday's session will be abbreviated. The three benchmark indexes are all up 2% or more for the week so far. In Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr announced a truce between Israel and Hamas after more than a week of airstrikes and missile attacks. This week, the market adopted a more positive tone after President Barack Obama and congressional leaders voiced confidence a budget agreement could be reached to avoid automatic tax hikes and across-the-board spending reductions otherwise slated to begin in January. “The greatest near-term risk to the economy and labor market remains the looming fiscal cliff. The sooner that an agreement is reached and greater clarity can be achieved, the better," wrote Jim Baird, chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors, in an email. “While the media is rampant with ‘fiscal cliff' worries, I think the year-end rally is near, or has actually begun," wrote Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, in a Wednesday research note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.38 points, or 0.4%, to 12,836.89, with 24 of its 30 components gaining ground. The S&P 500 index gained 3.22 points, or 0.2%, to 1,391.03, with energy the best performing of the 10 major industry groups and the utilities the only sector to end in the red. “The 1,390 level on the S&P 500 has proven time and again to be a key ‘energy level,' both on the downside and now on the upside for the markets," Saut said. Shares of Deere & Co. fell 3.7% after the agriculture-equipment manufacturer reported earnings that came in shy of consensus estimates. Salesforce.com Inc. gained 8.8% after the customer-management software provider projected sales and profit that met expectations. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 9.87 points, or 0.3%, to 2,926.55. For every stock that fell just over two gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where nearly 522 million shares traded. Composite volume surpassed 2.6 billion. Oil prices rose 63 cents to $87.38 a barrel and gold futures added $4.60 to $1,728.20 an ounce. Also Wednesday, consumer sentiment in November gained slightly to a reading of 82.7 but wasn't as strong as initially estimated, data compiled by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters showed. Separately, the Conference Board reported it's likely the U.S. economy will continue to “modestly" expand through early 2013, with the board's index of leading economic indicators rising 0.2% in October. And government data had fewer Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits last week, but the report was viewed as distorted by superstorm Sandy. European finance ministers plan to reconvene Monday after failing to reach consensus on another round of aid for Greece. Marketwatch
