(WWL.com) — Stocks rallied sharply today, with investors cheering a strong December jobs report and some calming comments from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell about interest rates.
Those same factors — and the Wall Street surge — gave oil prices a nice boost, too. Oil futures gained ground for a fifth-straight session, with February crude jumping 87 cents, or 1.8 percent, to settle at $47.96 a barrel. Big gainers on Wall Street today included Netflix, up about nine percent, and Caterpillar and Boeing, each of which leaped more than five percent. Lockheed Martin gained two and two-thirds percent.
Aiming to improve customer service and product availability, Lowe’s today announced a broad restructuring of its workforce. The home-improvement retailer will discontinue its project-specialist interiors program, but it will also hire nearly 10,000 permanent associates and about 6,000 full-time assistant-store-manager and department-supervisor personnel.