JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: The cost of living jumped last month, and oil and gas are to blame. Just four days before the Federal Reserve meets about raising interest rates, the Labor Department reports consumer prices shot up half a percent in February. That is the biggest jump in 10 months. But, take out food and energy, and the core increase is only 0.2 percent. For how the markets are digesting this latest economic news, we go to Myron Kandel at the business news desk in New York. Myron, we've seen this remarkable turnabout on Wall Street. Why? And is it continuing today?</s>MYRON KANDEL, CNN FINANCIAL EDITOR: Well, it is continuing. A lot of people thought that, after the two huge jumps in the Dow the previous two days, more than 800 point, that today, at least, the Dow would take a breather. But it isn't. It was down earlier, and now, as we can see on -- that's the Big Board screen -- the Dow is up again, and the Nasdaq is up as well. Well, what happened is, recently, the Nasdaq, as we know, crossed 5000 for the first time last week, while the Dow was tumbling. And people said: Oh, well, that's the new economy superseding the old. Of course, the Nasdaq composite is loaded with technology stocks, reflecting what's called the "new economy." Well, this week, the old economy, yesterday and the day before, came roaring back and showed that it can do very well also. And the interesting part in -- to answer your question directly -- is that yesterday, both the Nasdaq was up and the Dow was up. Shows -- so, it showed that there could be increases in both those major averages reflecting both the old economy and the new economy -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Myron Kandel, thank you. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web
Dow Continues to Rally Higher