Dow Tops 17,000 For First Time After Positive Jobs Report

* Dow tops 17,000 for first time; S&P 500 near 2,000

* Nasdaq closes at highest since 2000

* U.S. June jobs report well above forecasts

* PetSmart rallies as hedge fund seek sale

* Dow up 0.5 pct; S&P 500 up 0.6 pct; Nasdaq up 0.6 pct (Updates to close)

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK, July 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's holiday-shortened session ended with multiple records on Thursday, with the Dow topping 17,000 for the first time after the June jobs report came in much stronger than expected.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended at their third consecutive record highs. The Nasdaq ended at its highest since 2000 and rose for a third straight week. The three major indexes wrapped up a week of solid gains on the day before the Independence Day holiday, when the U.S. stock market will be closed.

The U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in June, racing past the 212,000 that economists had expected. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008, confirming expectations that the economy bounced back in the second quarter after a dismal start to the year.

Thursday's gains were broad, with nine of the 10 primary S&P 500 sector indexes rising for the day. The only negative group was utilities, down 1.1 percent. The utilities sector struggled as the June jobs data suggested that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates earlier than had previously been anticipated. Investors favor utilities in a low interest-rate environment because the sector is a dividend play.

"The report was very good and a real sign the economy is starting to take off," said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds in New York, which has about $450 billion in assets under management. "That said, it isn't an unmixed positive for the market because it suggests the Fed will consider raising rates in the first quarter."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 92.02 points or 0.54 percent, to 17,068.26. The S&P 500 gained 10.82 points or 0.55 percent, to 1,985.44. The Nasdaq Composite added 28.19 points or 0.63 percent, to 4,485.93.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 1.25 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 2 percent. With the week's gains, the Nasdaq has gained for seven of the past eight weeks, rising more than 10 percent over that period.

The Dow is underperforming other major indexes so far this year, with blue chips up about 3 percent in 2014. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have gained more than 7 percent.

About 55 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange ended higher, while 64 percent of Nasdaq-listed stocks closed in positive territory.

Volume was extremely light in the shortened session, with only 3.49 billion shares traded on all U.S. platforms, according to BATS exchange data. The five-day average is 6.29 billion.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average closed at a record 8,294.74, after hitting an intraday all-time high at 8,298.17.

PetSmart Inc was the S&P 500's biggest gainer, jumping 12.5 percent to $67.28 in its largest one-day advance since May 2012. The rally came after activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC said it planned to ask PetSmart to explore a sale and reported a 9.9 percent stake in the retailer.

Paccar Inc shares rose 5.4 percent to $67.25 after analysts published comments in a research note from a senior executive of Daimler, who said he heard Volkswagen was planning a bid for the truck maker, a claim that Volkswagen denied.

Regado Biosciences plummeted 58.4 percent to $2.81 after the Data Safety Monitoring Board started an unplanned review of data from a trial and the company said patient enrollment has been put on hold until the DSMB returns with recommendations. (Editing by Jan Paschal)

14 More Companies That Likely Will Deny Employees Birth Control

Hobby Lobby was just one of dozens of for-profit companies that challenged Obamacare's so-called contraception mandate, which requires companies with 50 or more employees to cover FDA-approved forms of birth control as part of their health care plans.

Many of those companies -- there are 48 of them with cases pending in lower courts, according to the National Women's Law Center -- are "closely held," meaning Monday's Supreme Court decision likely frees them to deny contraception coverage to their employees if they have a legitimate religious objection. (A closely held company is one where the majority of outstanding stock is owned by five or fewer people, according to the IRS.)

HuffPost read the court filings of these cases to determine which of those companies were easily identified as being "closely held" and how many employees were likely to be affected.

So what happens next for all these companies?

"These companies with cases pending, they will probably just go to court and file something simple, saying, 'In light of Monday's decision, we should prevail. We should be exempt from complying with this rule,'" says Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed amici briefs on behalf of the government in some of these cases.

Melling said she thinks this "will happen very soon."

Here are some of the next companies that will likely win the right to deny contraception coverage to their employees:

1. Tyndale House Publishers

A bible published by Tyndale House Publishers.

This Christian book and Bible publisher, which sued the federal government in 2012 over the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to cover contraception, said in a statement provided to HuffPost that it was “delighted” with the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.

“We hope the way is now clear for our court to rule that Tyndale House Publishers is not obligated to provide early abortion-causing items, which we find morally objectionable,” the statement said. Tyndale House, which is based in Illinois, has 260 full-time employees, according to court documents. Among other things, the company is known for publishing the works of evangelical icon and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

2. Trijicon
Trijicon, a Michigan-based company that makes rifle scopes, is no stranger to church-versus-state controversies. In 2010, it was revealed that the manufacturer had been stamping Bible verses onto its gun sights, many of which were used by U.S. and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The company later agreed to stop the practice.) In August of last year, a district court granted Trijicon a preliminary injunction in its case challenging the federal government’s mandate that companies with more than 50 employees provide coverage for birth control or pay a fine. Trijicon has more than 200 employees, according to the court filing.

Above, a rifle with a scope made by Trijicon.

3. Encompass Develop, Design & Construct
The owner of this Kentucky-based architecture and construction firm also sued the government last year, saying that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to cover “abortion-inducing drugs” would lead to a “wrongful taking of human life” that, as an evangelical Christian, he found “sinful.” The case is currently pending. Encompass has about 70 employees who could be affected by the Hobby Lobby decision.

4. Holland Chevrolet
Holland Chevrolet is a West Virginia-based corporation that sells and services cars. The company provides health insurance to about 150 full-time employees, according to court documents from its 2013 case against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Company owner Joe Holland, a born-again Christian, says in the lawsuit that it is “profoundly immoral” to “endorse any form of abortion.”

5. Johnson Welded Products
Citing freedom of speech violations, this manufacturing company, which makes parts for air brake systems for large vehicles, filed suit last year against the Obamacare birth control coverage requirement. Monday’s Supreme Court decision “will ensure a victory for our case,” Robert Muise, the attorney representing the company, told HuffPost. Johnson Welded Products is a family-run company with more than 200 employees, Muise said.

6. Barron Industries, Inc.
Barron Industries, a family-owned metal casting and machining company based in Michigan, was granted a preliminary injunction by a district court last year in its case challenging the contraception mandate. The company, which has 56 full-time staffers, holds mass for employees at its own on-site chapel, according to the Thomas More Law Center.

7. Zumbiel Packaging
Zumbiel Packaging, a privately owned company in northern Kentucky that makes packaging for consumer products, filed suit against the Obama administration last year, saying that the clause of the Affordable Care Act requiring them to provide certain types of contraception violated the company’s religious beliefs and constitutional rights.

8. Eden Foods
Eden Foods is a natural food company based in Michigan that has 128 full-time employees, according to court documents. The company also sued the government last year, saying the requirement to provide FDA-approved contraceptives was “an unprecedented despoiling of religious rights.” Though a district court denied Eden Foods the injunction it had requested, late last year the company asked the Supreme Court to review that decision.

Eden Foods is one of dozens of companies poised to deny contraception coverage to employees.

9. Ozinga Bros.
This concrete maker in Illinois has more than 750 employees, and sued the government in May 2013 for forcing it to provide FDA-approved forms of contraception in its health care packages. The Hobby Lobby decision means Ozinga, a closely held company, probably won’t have to.

10. Korte & Luitjohan Contractors
Korte & Luitjohan is a construction company based in Illinois with around 90 full-time employees, according to court documents. The company sued the government in 2012 over the contraception requirement and was denied an injunction, but that decision was later reversed. The case is currently pending.

11. Hart Electric LLC
Hart Electric is an electrical-component maker based in Illinois with 54 employees, according to court filings. The company’s owners sued the Obama administration in 2013 over the Obamacare contraception mandate, and the case is still pending.

12. Sioux Chief Manufacturing
Sioux Chief, a company in Missouri that makes plumbing products, also sued the government last year over the mandate, and the case is still pending. The company employs 370 people full time at its location in Missouri, according to court documents.

13. Beckwith Electric
Beckwith Electric, a family-owned company in Florida that makes micro-processor technology, sued the government last year, saying it had a conscientious objection to covering “abortifacients” for employees. The case is currently pending.

14. Randy Reed Automotive, Randy Reed Buick, Randy Reed Nissan, Randy Reed Chevrolet
These family-run car dealerships in Missouri, which have around 179 full-time employees, also sued the federal government over the ACA requirement to cover contraception. The companies’ case cites a “deeply held religious belief that life begins at conception” as its objection to the contraception. The case is currently pending.

Alexander C. Kaufman contributed to this report.