January 6, 2006

The New Year has brought a robust stock market rally as the Dow Jones Industrial Average nears 11,000 and the Telmar 25 Ad Impact Index has surged with the major market indices rising as well.  Among members of the Telmar 25, Publicis won an investment grade rating from Standard & Poors.  Forbes has announced their list of the 400 Best Big Companies and it included many members of the Telmar 25 including Disney, WPP Group, News Corp. Omnicom Group, Meredith and McGraw Hill.

One of the main reasons for this rally is the recent announcement by the Federal Reserve that the number of future interest rate increases is likely to be limited, indicating that the economy is slowing down.  This has weighed heavily on the dollar with a 3% decline against the major currencies in two days.  Today the U.S. Labor Department announced that employers added 108,000 workers in December.  The October and November numbers were revised upward by 71,000 jobs in November and October.  The unemployment rate dropped to 4.9%.