U.S. stocks advance after S&P 500’s third straight annual gain

FRANKFURT – U.S. stocks climbed, building on a year in which the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index surged to unprecedented highs and extended the bull market rally past 200 percent.

The S&P 500 added 0.6 percent to 2,070.49 at 9:33 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 95.20 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,918.27.

The S&P 500 fell on the last two days of 2014, giving it a monthly decline of 0.4 percent for the first December drop since 2007. That trimmed its third straight annual gain to 11 percent.

Shares rallied last year as accelerating growth fueled optimism in the U.S. economy and an accommodative Federal Reserve policy sent risk-seeking investors into equities.

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The S&P 500, Dow and Russell 2000 Index climbed to records last month, while the Nasdaq Composite Index reached its highest level since March 2000. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Dec. 29 for the 53rd time of the year, and the Dow reached 18,000 last week.

In the biggest bull market since the 1990s, the S&P 500 overcame five separate declines of 4 percent or more in 2014. The gauge never fell more than three straight days, a first in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 2000. It has jumped more than 200 percent from its low in March 2009, including its biggest annual rally since 1997 in 2013.

A report today will show that the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index slipped in December, economists forecast.

In the euro area, manufacturing expanded less than initially estimated. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he can’t exclude the risk of deflation in the euro area, in a sign that the likelihood of large-scale quantitative easing is increasing.

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