DOW LOOKING UP; OPTIMISM LIFTS MARKET PAST 8,000.Byline: Peter G. Gosselin The Boston Globe Investors set aside their worries Monday and bought stocks, driving 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. above 8,000 for the first time since a panicky sell-off six weeks ago prompted widespread predictions that America's long bull market was finally ending. Soothing official pronouncements about Asia's financial crisis, new statistics suggesting U.S. growth may be slowing from an unsustainable pace, and a decision by oil-rich nations to boost output combined to produce the sudden burst of investor optimism, which some analysts found disconcerting dis·con·cert tr.v. dis·con·cert·ed, dis·con·cert·ing, dis·con·certs 1. To upset the self-possession of; ruffle. See Synonyms at embarrass. 2. . ``People were acting as if it's snap your fingers and everything is fine again,'' said Richard R. Schamltz, investment director for J&W Seligman & Co., a 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 mutual fund and money management firm. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how long it can last.'' The surge in U.S. stock prices, which followed similar gains overnight in Asia and Europe, sent the Dow average up 189.98 points, or 2.4 percent, to 8,013.11. That was the index's first 8,000-plus close since late October when a previously isolated currency crisis in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, region of Asia (1990 est. pop. 442,500,000), c.1,740,000 sq mi (4,506,600 sq km), bounded roughly by the Indian subcontinent on the west, China on the north, and the Pacific Ocean on the east. set off a worldwide stock tumble. Most investors' attention was focused Monday on comments by Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto Ryutaro Hashimoto (橋本龍太郎 Hashimoto Ryūtarō, July 29, 1937 - July 1, 2006) was a Japanese politician who served as the 82nd and 83rd Prime Minister of Japan from January 11, 1996 to July 30, 1998. that he will do ``anything necessary'' to safeguard his nation's financial system, and on steps by the Japanese Ministry of Finance to protect depositors, but permit weak banks to fail. ``There was a piling on of good news today,'' said Wayne Nordberg, a partner with Lord Abbett & Co., a New York money management company. Whether it can last and the stock market continue to rise ``will be tested shortly,'' he added. BACK OVER 8,000 A look at the Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance industrial average's performance since Oct. 22, when it last crossed the 8,000 mark: Oct. 22: 8,034.65 Oct. 27: 7,161.15 Monday: 8,013.11 CAPTION(S): Photo, Chart PHOTO (color) no caption (Trader on stock exchange) CHART: (color) BACK OVER 8,000 (see text) |
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