Stock Market Today: Dow Shoots Past 26K in Third Straight Gain
BA jumps 13%; AXP helps Dow rally continue

The Dow is 3-for-3 in June, with a third consecutive day of gains triggered by more data suggesting that the deepest depths of America's economic trench are behind it.
ADP reported that private payrolls declined by 2.76 million in May, which was significantly better than the 8.75 million expected. ISM's non-manufacturing activity index readout from May also improved -- to 45.4, from 41.8 in April -- suggesting that the services industry still is contracting, but at a slower rate.
That added more kindling to ongoing rallies in economically sensitive industries such as airline stocks. The U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) gained 7.3% Wednesday and has shot 30.0% higher over the past two weeks. The Dow, which cleared the 26K level with a 2.1% gain to 26,269, was led by the likes of Boeing (BA, +13.0%) and American Express (AXP, +6.4%).

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Investors can find positive momentum across the board. The S&P 500 closed 1.4% higher to 3,122.87. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8% today to put it less than 2% away from record highs. Small-cap stocks are gaining steam, too, with the Russell 2000 improving by another 2.6% on Wednesday. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been the best of the major indices over the past two weeks, rallying a sharp 8.5% as economic indicators crawl out of the basement.
Investors who want to piggyback the mega-cap index's momo, however, should look at its components on a case-by-case basis. Here, we've broken down the entire Dow 30, from worst to first, based on how Wall Street collectively views these stocks. Read on for the full rankings, as well as what the pros have to say about why they're hot for, or hesitant about, each of these well-known blue chips.
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Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.
Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism.
You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.
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