Billionaire investor Ron Burkle is working with a union representing workers at Dow Jones & Co to explore alternatives to Rupert Murdoch's $5bn (€3.69bn) bid for the company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street eked out a modest advance today after investors found little motivation in remarks by Federal Reserve officials and also shrugged off a warning from chip maker National Semiconductor Inc.

Wall Street surged higher today, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials past 12,500 for the first time as year-end bargain hunters picked up stocks across a variety of sectors.

Surging oil prices left stocks little changed today as interest rate worries also diluted Wall Street’s enthusiasm over multibillion-dollar acquisitions in the banking and newspaper sectors.