Manufacturing expanded last month at the strongest pace since June, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Orders, hiring and production all rose.

A measure of manufacturing employment also reached a nine-month high, a hopeful sign ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs report.

The manufacturing news jolted stock indexes out of a morning stupor, although the gains waned throughout the afternoon. The Dow added 65.69 points to 13,279.32, its highest closing mark since Dec. 28, 2007, during the first month of the Great Recession.

Every piece of good news for us, is bad news for them (which, curiously, could lead to more good news for us).

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Dow Jones average hits highest mark since `07 – latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-stock-market-20120501,0,2593823.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+(L.A.+Times+-+Business)