New Apple Launch Raises Nasdaq

Stocks climbed for the third day in a row today as Wall Street traders gained confidence about prospects for the economy.

The Nasdaq Stock Market composite index and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index climbed to new five-year highs. The S&P climbed 6 points to 1,311.56 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 14 points to 2,359.75. The Dow Jones industrial average lagged a bit, gaining 36 points to 11,239.55.

Nasdaq got a boost from the stock of Apple Computer, which scored its biggest daily advance in almost 1 1/2 years after Apple announced its newest computers will run Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Apple shares jumped $6.04 to $67.21 on the news, which most analysts said should boost sales of Apple computers by making it easier for people to switch brands.

Only the newest Apples, which use chips manufactured by Intel Corp., can do Windows. Users will have to download a special program that Apple is giving away, plus buy a copy of Windows.

While the Apple development got tech stocks moving, it was economic news that motivated the rest of the market.

A private gauge of the services sector of the economy showed a modest improvement in overall activity and, more importantly, revealed that inflation isn't a problem for service businesses.

In fact, prices paid for supplies by those companies actually fell significantly last month.

Also encouraging to stock buyers was the comment by Treasury Secretary John Snow that the jobs report coming later this week "will be good."