Fed’s interest-rate pledge sends Dow to 8-month high

The stock market bounced to its highest close since last spring Wednesday after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero for almost three more years.

Bond yields dropped sharply, then climbed back later in the day when investors began looking more closely into the Fed’s deliberations. The yield on the five-year Treasury note touched an all-time low.

The big moves in both markets came at 12:30 p.m., when the Fed’s monetary policy committee said it was unlikely to raise interest rates before late 2014. It had previously promised to keep rates low into the middle of 2013.

The Dow closed up 83.10 points, or 0.7 percent, at 12,758.85. That’s the highest close since May. The Dow peaked for last year in April at 12,810.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 2.05 percent an hour before the announcement and quickly fell to 1.92, a significant move. It rose to 1.99 percent two hours later.

NLRB doing more to help unions enter workplaces

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the National Labor Relations Board hopes to have another round of regulations in place by the end of the year that would make it easier for unions to establish and win representation elections in workplaces.

Undeterred by Republican protests, Mark Pearce said he will urge the board to approve the new rules now that it has a full component of five members after President Obama bypassed the Senate to fill three vacancies. One of the changes: requiring businesses to hand over lists of employee phone numbers and emails to union leaders before an election.

“Our goal is to create a set of rules that eliminate a lot of waste of time, energy and money for the taxpayers,” Pearce said.

Apple Inc. briefly takes over as most valuable company

NEW YORK – Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, but the oil company regained the lead at the market’s close.

Apple said Tuesday that net income in its latest quarter more than doubled, while revenue grew 73 percent. Its stock rose as much as 8 percent, while Exxon’s fell as much as 2 percent during trading Wednesday.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple’s increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion.

California-based Apple first topped Exxon in August, then fell back to second place. Texas-based Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.

– From news service reports