Nasdaq at 11-year high as jobless rate boosts markets

A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest in three years propelled the Dow Jones industrial average Friday to its highest close since before the 2008 financial crisis. The Nasdaq composite index hit an 11-year high.

The Dow jumped 156.82 points to 12,862.23, its highest mark since May 19, 2008, about four months before Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed.

Before the market opened, the Labor Department said the economy added 243,000 jobs in January. It was the strongest job growth in nine months. The increase in hiring pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009.

The surprising data gave financial markets a morning jolt that lasted throughout the trading day. The Nasdaq index closed 45.98 points higher at 2,905.66, its highest since December 2000, during the steep decline that followed the dot-com stock bubble.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 19.36 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,344.90, its highest close since last July. The S&P 500 surged 2.2 percent for the week, its fifth straight week of gains. That’s the longest weekly winning stretch since January of 2011.

Arizona bills Amazon in move to collect sales taxes

Arizona is moving toward making online merchants collect sales tax on residents’ purchases, a departure from the state’s previous hands-office stance.

The state Revenue Department has billed Amazon.com for $53 million in uncollected sales taxes for nearly five years. Amazon says it’s contesting the state’s move, which the company disclosed in its latest annual report.

At the Legislature, Arizona lawmakers have introduced a bill to require Amazon.com and other retailers with distribution centers in the state to collect sales taxes. The bill, which is supported by brick-and-mortar retailers, is scheduled for a hearing in one Senate committee but so far not in a second.

Arizonans are obligated under law to pay use tax – a version of the sales tax – on items they purchase for nonbusiness use, and they are supposed to report and pay that amount to the state if the seller doesn’t.

State officials say individuals typically don’t do that, but a new state law now requires taxpayers to report unpaid sales-tax obligations as part of their state income tax.

CFO at bioscience company sentenced for child porn ads

A financial officer who admitted advertising child pornography for others to download was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Robert Paratore, of East Greenwich, N.J., was chief financial officer of Akers Biosciences, a company that makes health screening and testing devices. According to court documents and statements made during Paratore’s plea hearing, he used his work computer to download the files and offer them on the Internet in 2009.

The files contained images of prepubescent children and infants engaged in sexual activity as well as graphic descriptions of the acts.

A search of Paratore’s truck yielded more than 100 CDs and DVDs containing child pornography, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

— From news service reports