DOW BACK ATOP 10K; SLOW JOB GROWTH FUELS MARKET SURGE.Byline: Kenneth N. Gilpin The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The stock market's torrid affair with technology and Internet companies continued Monday, lifting the three main gauges of stock market performance to records. Stocks rallied in their first day of trading since the release on Friday of mixed employment data for March. The news touched off a strong rally in the bond market on Friday in an abbreviated session. Stock exchanges were closed in observance of Good Friday Good Friday, anniversary of Jesus' death on the cross. According to the Gospels, Jesus was put to death on the Friday before Easter Day. Since the early church Good Friday has been observed by fasting and penance. . The employment report makes it increasingly unlikely that the Federal Reserve will feel the need to raise short-term interest rates Short-term interest rates Interest rates on loan contracts-or debt instruments such as Treasury bills, bank certificates of deposit or commerical paper-having maturities of less than one year. Often called money market rates. in the near future, which is a positive for stocks. Still, traders said that they were not expecting Monday's surge. ``Things were kind of quiet at the end of last week, and the positive tone during the morning was quite surprising,'' said Andrew M. Brooks, a vice president at T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) is an independent global investment management firm and mutual fund manager based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price, Jr.. T. Associates. For the most part, however, the biggest gains were concentrated among the largest and best-known leaders of a select group of industries, from IBM and Microsoft See Microsoft and IBM. to Intel, Lucent and America Online See AOL. . Several financial-services stocks also soared. ``The strong are getting stronger, and cash is going in to those stocks that have done well recently,'' Brooks said. ``At some point, the music is going to stop, but no one knows when that is going to happen.'' At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. , the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite index Nasdaq Composite Index An index that indicates price movements of securities in the over-the-counter market. It includes all domestic common stocks in the Nasdaq System (approximately 5,000 stocks) and is weighted according to the market value of each listed had all set records. Trading volume Trading volume The number of shares transacted every day. As there is a seller for every buyer, one can think of the trading volume as half of the number of shares transacted. That is, if A sells 100 shares to B, the volume is 100 shares. on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. was light, with just fewer than 700 million shares changing hands. On the Nasdaq, 977.8 million shares were traded. ``Things are good, but there is no volume,'' said one stock trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``What trading there is is all in technology, Internet issues and some financial stocks.'' The Dow, which closed above 10,000 for the first time last week, did so again Monday. The gauge rose 174.82 points, or 1.8 percent, to 10,007.33. The S&P 500 gained 27.40, or 2.1 percent, to 1,321.12. The S&P 500 gained 27.40, or 2.1 percent, to 1,321.12. The Nasdaq composite index rose to a record for the first time in two months. Bolstered by gains in stocks like Microsoft, up 2.25 to 94.9375; Intel, up 6.625 to 127.5; Yahoo!, up 39.375 to 219.125, and Amazon.com, up 15.5 to 186.5, the index soared 66.69, or 2.7 percent, to 2,560.06. For the most part, developments in the war in Yugoslavia were seen as inconsequential for stocks. ``Right now, people think the economy will continue to expand at a 4 percent rate and that inflation is dead,'' said Byron R. Wien, U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. ``The market is resistant to bad news, and Kosovo is a good example of that.'' The Dow was led higher by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and American Express, which together accounted for nearly 40 percent of the rise in the gauge. IBM climbed 6.9375, to 183.9375. And American Express rose 4.4375, to 125.4375. Other Dow components did nearly as well. General Electric gained 3, to 114.625. And Hewlett-Packard, the other computer company in the Dow, rose 3.5625, to 71.4375. America Online led the S&P 500 higher and was again the most actively traded stock on the Big Board. It jumped 16.9375, to 166.9375. The gain propelled the company to ninth in terms of its weighting in the S&P 500, ahead of companies like AT&T and Lucent Technologies. Lucent, whose previously announced 2-for-1 stock split became effective Monday, had a big day. It rose 3.0625, to 58.9375. Meanwhile, AT&T's stock fell 1.0625, to 77.4375. Online brokerage stocks soared after an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston was originally the trading name of the Financière Crédit Suisse-First Boston, a London-based 50-50 investment banking joint venture formed in 1978 between the First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse. said online trading Online Trading Making trades via the Internet. Notes: The use of online trading increased dramatically in the mid to late 1990's with the advent of high-speed computers and Internet connections. Stocks, bonds, options, futures, and currencies can all be traded online. rose 30 percent to 35 percent in the first quarter. Charles Schwab, the biggest online broker, gained 9.125, to 103.375. Ameritrade Holding, the sixth-biggest online broker, soared 29.0625, to 91.625. And Equitable's Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which owns a widely used Internet brokerage service, gained 4.3125, to 71.75. But the session also had some big losers. Aspen Technology saw its stock fall 3.3125, to 9.9375, after the software manufacturer said it expected to report a significant operating loss operating loss The excess of operating expenses over revenue. As with operating income, operating losses exclude revenues and expenses from operations that are not considered a regular part of the business. Also called deficit. Compare operating income. for the quarter ended March 31. And shares of Aspect Development fell nearly two-thirds, losing 14.4687, to 7.9375, after the software maker said it expected first-quarter revenue and earnings to be well below analysts' estimates. The breadth of the market's advance improved a bit Monday, a development some analysts said was encouraging. On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,695 stocks rose, while 1,318 fell. ``In the last week, breadth has improved a bit, but this is a very selective market, and it has been for over a year,'' said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards Inc. in St. Louis. ``The bears just can't adjust to the kind of market we have right now.'' TOP 10 CLOSES The 10 highest closes of the Dow Jones industrial average: 1. 10,007.33 April 5, 1999 2. 10,006.78 March 29, 1999 3. 9,997.62 March 18, 1999 4. 9,958.77March 15, 1999 5. 9,930.47 March 16, 1999 6. 9,913.26 March 30, 1999 7. 9,903.55 March 19, 1999 8. 9,897.44 March 11, 1999 9. 9,890.51 March 22, 1999 10. 9,879.41 March 17, 1999 Associated Press CAPTION(S): Box BOX: TOP 10 CLOSES (See text) |
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