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Wall Street shares higher as bull run continues

Last updated: 01:03 10 Mar 2015 AEDT, First published: 02:03 10 Mar 2015 AEDT

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Wall Street shares were on the up as the new trading week began, with the benchmark Dow gaining 82 points to 17,941.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost one but the S&P was also higher, up four points to 2,076.

Markets across the Pond on Friday saw sharp losses as the non-farm job creation report showed a very strong number for February.

It smashed analysts expectations of 235,000, coming in at 295,000 - the 12th straight monthly number above 200,000 in a row, but broughtb back into focus the Fed's stance on interest rates back in focus with commentators  suggesting the rise could be sooner rather than later.

That appeared to spook investors but the bull run  continues stateside and today celebrates its sixth anniversary.

The S&P 500 hit a low on March 9 six years ago and has more than tripled in value since then.

On the corporate front, there were some notable risers - General Motors added  2.23% after it unveiled a US$5bn share buyback programme in an agreement with dissented investors.

The car giant also confirmed it is to lift its quarterly dividend to 36 cents a share from 30 cents previously.

Social media giant Twitter added 1.5% to US$47.45 as heavyweight broker JP Morgan Cazenove issued a postive note, putting a price target of US$67 on the shares.

In London, FTSE100 is down 0.55% to 6,873 with state-owned bank RBS (LON:RBS) and oil major Tullow (LON:TLW) weighing.

Greece was also back in the frame. A Eurogroup meeting is taking place in Brussels today to consider Greece’s proposed reforms, which are a pre-requisite for an extension of the country’s bail-out programme.

Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is head of the Eurogroup, has already suggested Greece might need to push the boat out a bit further to receive EU backing.

Those views are unlikely to go down well with the Greek government, with Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis suggesting that if Eurozone officials prove too hard-line, another Greek election or a referendum could be in the offing.

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