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.

GM Recalls Another 8.2 Million Vehicles

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' safety crisis worsened on Monday when the automaker added 8.2 million vehicles to its huge list of cars recalled over faulty ignition switches.

The latest recalls involve mainly older midsize cars and bring GM's total number of recalls this year to over 28 million. GM said it was aware of three deaths, eight injuries and seven crashes involving the vehicles recalled on Monday. But the company said it has no conclusive evidence that faulty switches caused the crashes.

The Detroit company also said it plans to take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter for recall-related expenses. Added to a $1.3 billion charge in the first quarter, that brings total recall expenses for the year to $2.5 billion.

The latest recalls cover seven vehicles, including the Chevrolet Malibu from 1997 to 2005 and the Pontiac Grand Prix from 2004 to 2008. The recalls also cover a newer model, the 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS. GM said the recalls are for "unintended ignition key rotation."

CEO Mary Barra said the recalls stem from an extensive safety review within the company.

"If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation," she said in a statement.

GM is urging people to remove everything from their key rings until the recalled cars can be repaired.

It also announced four other recalls Monday covering more than 200,000 additional vehicles. Most are to fix an electrical short in the driver's door that could disable the power locks and windows and even cause overheating.

The announcement temporarily halted trading of GM stock on Monday afternoon, but it resumed in about a half hour and was down 1.2 percent to $36.19.

Things Get Super-Awkward When CNBC Discusses Whether Tim Cook Is Gay

America's most testosterone-fueled news channel just had itself a little chat about gay CEOs. It went about as smoothly as you might expect.

New York Times columnist Jim Stewart was on CNBC Friday morning discussing the mystery of why chief executives in Corporate America aren't outing themselves left and right. He has a new column -- with the very New York Timesy headline "Among Gay CEOs, The Pressure To Conform" -- about former BP CEO John Browne, who has only discussed his own sexuality after retirement.

Stewart, who is openly gay, expressed surprise that none of the gay CEOs he talked to for the column -- and there are many, apparently -- were willing to go on the record about their experience.

At which point CNBC anchor Simon Hobbs interjected:

"I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact that he is gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?"

There followed approximately four seconds of utter silence -- an eternity in television time -- while the other four people on the set each looked like they might have pooped their pants just a little bit.

(If you're pressed for time, you can fast-forward to about the 47th second of the video to hear Hobbs start his comment.)

When they were able to express themselves again, they could do so only in guttural tones rather than coherent thoughts:

"Mmmmmmm, no," intoned Stewart.

"Ohhhhh dear," said Hobbs. "Was that an error?"

"Wow!" said CNBC reporter David Faber. "I think you just... yeah."

All the while, Stewart's head was on a greased swivel of disapproval:

Turns out, funny story, Cook has not been open at all about his sexuality, or much of anything else in his private life for that matter, perhaps because what the hell difference does it make?

People point to a December speech, when Cook said, "I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination, and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority.”

Which is not quite the same thing as saying, "Hey, America, guess what, I'm gay!" And Cook was also talking in that speech about cross-burning and racial discrimination he saw growing up in the South.

Cook has publicly advocated -- including in the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, of all places -- for an end to workplace discrimination based on sexual identity. But that is evidence only of common sense, not sexuality.

Other news outlets have declared that Cook is gay, but Cook has been silent on the matter. So it's not really Stewart's or CNBC's place to break that silence.

"I don't want to comment about anybody who might or might not be, because... I-I'm not gonna out anybody," Stewart said on CNBC, when he had recovered.

And that was pretty much the end of the most-awkward segment ever on CNBC, after which everybody immediately resumed shouting loudly about stock prices and the Federal Reserve and Obamacare, or whatever it is they're always mad about. At least, I assume that's what happened -- like everybody else in America, I usually watch CNBC with the sound off.

Stealing A Pen At Work Could Turn You On To Much Bigger Crimes

Steal a pen from your office and you could find yourself on a path toward becoming the next Bernie Madoff.

That's the warning of a new study, called "The Slippery Slope: How Small Ethical Transgressions Pave The Way For Larger Future Transgressions," by David Welsh of the University of Washington, Lisa Ordóñez of the University of Arizona, Deirdre Snyder of Providence College, and Michael Christian of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to the study, which was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, minor unethical behavior at work, if undetected, puts workers on a "slippery slope" that could lead to worse behavior over time.

Stealing a pen is basically a gateway to massive corporate fraud.

To most of us, fairly innocuous sins like taking a pen from work or neglecting to refill the office coffee pot are much easier to justify than, say, racking up $2 billion in trading losses. But over time, the researchers found, those minor misdeeds make it easier to justify more and bigger evils in the long run.

“People rationalize their behavior to justify it,” Ordóñez, one of the study's authors, said in a press release. "They might think ‘No one got hurt,’ or ‘Everyone does it.’ The next time, they feel fine about doing something a little bit worse the next time and then commit more severe unethical actions.”

The researchers tested this theory by watching subjects in a number of different situations. One interesting experiment found that subjects who were given 25 cents for doing a minor unethical thing were much more likely to take $2.50 to do something more egregious later on than those who were offered $2.50 to do a big no-no at the start. According to the researchers, this shows that people are less likely to commit what they call "abrupt and large dilemmas" when they haven't already committed gradual, small transgressions.

If you're considering taking home a ream of copy paper, just think: doing so could land you behind bars with this guy.

The study cites Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history and spoke of this phenomenon to his longtime secretary, according to Vanity Fair:

“Well, you know what happens is, it starts out with you taking a little bit, maybe a few hundred, a few thousand. You get comfortable with that, and before you know it, it snowballs into something big.”

So what can you do to prevent yourself from becoming the next Jeff Skilling?

The researchers offer a number of tips to discourage the minor stuff, like putting in place a firm set of ethical guidelines and calling workers out for the small things, like taking home too many office supplies.

“The ideal is for employees to recognize when they’ve committed a minor transgression and check themselves," Michael S. Christian, one of the paper's co-authors, wrote.

U.S. Ruling Loosens Four-Decade Ban On Oil Exports

The Obama administration has quietly cleared the way for the first exports of unrefined American oil in four decades, allowing energy companies to chip away at the long-standing ban on selling U.S. crude overseas.

Read the whole story at online.wsj.com

Olive Garden Is Evidence Of A Huge Problem In The Economy

One restaurant operator has just given us a small window into a huge problem with the American economy.

Darden Restaurants, the Orlando-based purveyor of sit-down food chains, announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, revealing that some of its restaurants have done much better than others in the past few months.

What was the major difference between success and failure at its restaurants? The diners. Restaurants that serve the well-off are thriving, while those that serve the rest of us are struggling, in a microcosm of the broader economy.

Struggling are Olive Garden and Red Lobster, which are largely geared toward middle-class customers, who have been squeezed during the recession and slow recovery. Families with young children cut back on restaurant spending during the downturn, and they haven’t come back, according to a recent survey by restaurant research firm NPD Group.

Same-store sales, a measure of performance at restaurants open a year or more, dropped 3.5 percent at Olive Garden and 5.6 percent at Red Lobster over the quarter. At Long Horn Steak House, Darden’s middle-of-the-road steak chain, same-store sales rose 2.4 percent, but traffic -- the measure of how many people are actually coming through the door -- dropped over the quarter.

On the other hand, at Darden’s Capital Grille, where most dinner entrees fetch more than $40 each, same-store sales increased 4 percent over the quarter. That makes sense, too: Over the past few years, the kinds of people who can afford a fancy dinner have seen their incomes grow, even as everybody else's incomes have stayed flat.

Still, Darden is hoping it can convince pinched diners to spend again at Olive Garden by re-making the chain in the image of other trendy restaurants. They’re offering convenience through online and tablet ordering, more choice and customization options for their various combo meals, faster lunch service and even tapas -- all while still emphasizing the value of a meal that comes with unlimited salad, soup and breadsticks.

The hope is that they’ll attract the all-important “millennials” and “multi-cultural households” who are doing all their eating at Chipotle and Panera right now, Darden chief operating officer Eugene Lee said on the company’s earnings call.

Seafood chain Red Lobster has struggled for years, thanks to a suffering middle-class, along with changing dining habits and fluctuating seafood prices.

Darden plans on selling Red Lobster to boost performance. “We don’t believe that Red Lobster is as well-positioned as our other brands for the future that we see,” Darden’s CEO Clarence Otis Jr. said on the company’s earnings call.

Darden's performance over the past few years, with and without Red Lobster.