RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: But the reasons why aren't as simple as the numbers. Analysts have different takes on the stock market rally, as NPR's Jack Speer has been finding out.</s>JACK SPEER: Jeremy Siegel is professor at the Wharton School of Business. He has written several books on Wall Street. His view is the market was simply looking for an excuse to move higher and decided to latch onto some positive sales numbers from big box retailers Costco and Wal-Mart.</s>JEREMY SIEGEL: Retail sales have been a concern. The subprime market has been a concern. Everyone has been waiting for something else bad to happen. And I think what's happened is they've turn around and said, you know what? I don't see these other bad things happening.</s>JACK SPEER: But Alan Skrainka, chief economist at Edward Jones, had a different view.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: A lot of folks will point to the retail numbers, but I don't see anything there to write home about. I think the stock market is sensing a big bounce-back and growth in the economy and primarily looking at the trade report.</s>JACK SPEER: Jack Speer, NPR News.
The Dow Jones Industrial average's rise of 283 points, to 13,861.33, has many on Wall Street speculating about its next feat: sweeping past the 14,000 mark sooner than expected. Standard & Poor's 500 Index, meanwhile, hit a new record of 1,547.70.