Another day, another record for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.06%), which has recovered early losses to move 0.22% higher as of 3:20 p.m. EDT. The S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.14%) is also up 0.22%, although there was little news driving either index higher today.
On a company-specific level, Boeing (BA -0.23%) has been leading the Dow higher today, jumping 1.9% to a 52-week high. Vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth said the company has found a permanent fix for the 787 Dreamliner's battery problems, and investors are hoping the company will return aircraft to flight soon. I'd rather hear news like this from the engineering team than from marketing, but investors are taking any good news they can get right now.
American Express (AXP -0.03%) is up 1.2% today as investors bet on growing consumer credit in an improving economy. Friday's better-than-expected unemployment numbers and steadily growing consumer credit should be positives for American Express going forward. The big banks are also moving higher today, but American Express is leading the group.
On the downside, General Electric (GE 1.11%) has fallen 0.9% today. The company said it will expand a $1 billion Hudson River cleanup at the request of New York's comptroller. The cost of the expansion is unknown at this point, but the company is halfway to the EPA's initial goal of removing 2.65 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated by GE decades ago. In the long term, this shouldn't have a big impact on the company.
