S&P 500 closes above 1,800 first time

The stock market brushed past another milestone Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 1,800 for the first time, capping seven straight weeks of gains. The broader index is on track for its best performance in 15 years as a combination of solid corporate earnings, a strengthening economy and easy-money policies from the Federal Reserve draw investors to stocks. Stocks have also gained because they offer an attractive alternative to bonds, where interest rates remain close to all-time lows. "You can't really get better returns other than in the stock market," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "It's been a quality run-up in stocks." The S&P 500 index rose 8.91 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,804.76. The index has advanced 26.5 percent in 2013. If it finishes at that level, it would be its strongest year since a 26.7 percent gain in 1998. The Dow Jones industrial average also continued its upward march after finishing above 16,000 for the first time Thursday. The index gained 54.78 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,064.77. The Nasdaq composite rose 22.49 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,991.65. On Friday, health care stocks led the market's rise. Biotechnology company Biogen Idec surged on reports that it won market exclusivity for its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug in Europe. The company's stock jumped $33.19, or 13 percent, to $285.62. Health care stocks have also led gains in the S&P 500 this year, rising 38 percent. The industry is attractive to investors. Some of its companies, including Biogen, offer the possibility of explosive growth.

The government shutdown is over: Obama

On Thursday night, US President Barack Obama signed legislation to reopen our government and pay our bills. 

“Because Democrats and responsible Republicans came together, the first government shutdown in 17 years is now over,” he said on Thursday in the State Dining Room. “The first default in more than 200 years will not happen. These twin threats to our economy have been lifted.”

There was no economic rationale for all this, President Obama said: “Over the past four years, our economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs, and our deficits have been cut in half,” he said, “but nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises.”

The way business is done in Washington has to change, President Obama said.

Because we’ve all got a lot of work to do on behalf of the American people – and that includes the hard work of regaining their trust. Our system of self-government doesn’t function without it. And now that the government is reopened, and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio, and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do – and that’s grow this economy, create good jobs, strengthen the middle class, lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity, and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul.

President Obama laid out three places where he believes we can make progress right now: Pursuing a budget that grows our economy faster and shrinks our long-term deficits further; fixing our broken immigration system; and passing a farm bill.

“I will look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done,” President Obama said. “And there's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly, despite our differences, without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis.”

Those of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can. We come from different parties, but we are Americans first. And that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can't degenerate into hatred. The American people’s hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours. Our obligations are to them. Our regard for them compels us all, Democrats and Republicans, to cooperate, and compromise, and act in the best interests of our nation –- one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.