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July 3, 2014: Markets opened higher on Thursday and the DJIA quickly burst through the 17,000 barrier on a half-day trading session. The better-than-expected gain in non-farm payrolls and the drop in the U.S. unemployment rate to 6.1% pushed all the major indexes higher. The DJIA closed up 0.54% for the day, the S&P 500 closed up 0.55%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.63%.

Today’s big gainer among the Dow 30 stocks was The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS). The stock closed at $169.46, up 1.54% in a 52-week range of $149.28 to $181.13. Share volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 2.8 million shares traded. The company has been added to the list of advisers for Malaysian state-owned investment fund 1MDB’s coming IPO, expected to raise more than $3 billion.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) posted a new 52-week high and closed today up 1.39% at $111.08. The stock’s 52-week range is $81.35 to $116.16. Volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 4.1 million shares traded. The company had no news today.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) closed up 1.04% at $83.35 after posting a new 52-week high of $83.44. The stock’s 52-week low is $64.65. Volume was about 50% below the daily average of around 4.2 million shares traded. The company had no news of note today.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) closed higher by 1% at $102.59. The stock’s 52-week range is $84.79 to $104.61. Volume was about 30% lower than the daily average of around 9.8 million shares traded. The company had no news today, but natural gas prices rose about 0.3%.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 27 closed higher today and just 3 closed lower.

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