Tobacco, Phone Stocks Climb
(Wall Street Journal) — U.S. stocks edged up, boosted by tobacco companies after the Supreme Court declined to review a landmark tobacco-industry ruling as well as by telecommunications stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10157. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 2229. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.3% to 1080, with tobacco companies leading the consumer staples sector higher. Reynolds American gained 4.2%, Altria Group rose 3.2% andLorillard gained 2.7% after the high court refused to revisit a case that found the tobacco industry violated federal racketeering laws by engaging in a decades-long scheme to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.
