Dow records best finish since September 11
Wall Street held on to its gains yesterday, rising modestly even as investors pondered what direction to take after the surge in stock prices this week.
The Dow Jones industrials had their first close above their levels of September 11.
The Dow closed up 20.48, or 0.2%, at 9,608.00 just above its close of 9,605.51 on September 10, the day before the terror attacks. The index has now recouped all of the 1,369 points it lost in the ensuing sell-off.
Broader stock indicators advanced marginally. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.77, or nearly 0.2%, at 1,120.31, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.72, or 0.04%, to 1,828.49. Both indexes surpassed pre-attack levels last month.
‘‘This is a market that’s recognizing that it’s come a long way in a relatively short period of time,’’ said Charles Crane, strategist for Victory SBSF Capital Management.
Noting that seven weeks ago the market hit its lows following the terrorist attacks, Crane said: ‘‘If you look at the major benchmarks, the Nasdaq is up about 28%, the S&P is up nearly 16%. Those are impressive numbers.’’
Trading yesterday appeared company-specific. Boeing lost dlrs 1.72 to dlrs 33.18 on news that Scandinavian airline SAS had grounded 43 Boeing planes because of mechanical concerns.
Hewlett-Packard maintained its advance from earlier this week on news suggesting its plans to acquire Compaq were in jeopardy. HP rose 64 cents to dlrs 18.99, while Compaq lost 26 cents to dlrs 7.73.
Energy stocks rose on reports that Opec members might agree to curtail supply in efforts to reverse the recent slide in oil prices. ExxonMobil rose 75 cents to dlrs 40.25.
The calm session was an uneventful end to a strong week that saw the Dow and S&P rise 3%, while the Nasdaq gained 4.7%.
Analysts attributed much of the advance to momentum from the rallies on Monday and Tuesday, which preceded and followed the Federal Reserve’s 10th interest rate cut this year.
The cuts have also helped stabilise a market in which good earnings and economic data remain scarce.
Yesterday, the Labour Department reported that prices at the wholesale level plunged 1.6% in October, the biggest one-month drop in 54 years of record-keeping, as petrol and energy prices fell by the largest amount in 12 years.
Advancing and declining issues traded nearly evenly on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume totalled 1.08 billion shares, compared with 1.49 billion Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.95 to 438.11.
