DOW SETS ANOTHER RECORD 5,539.45\Fourth straight session of highs puzzles investors.Byline: Laurence Zuckerman 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 Stocks continued to rise Thursday, pushing stock indexes to record highs for the fourth consecutive session, even as the market confounded professional investors who have been baffled by its recent gains. 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. moved above the 5,500-point level for the first time, finishing ahead 47.33, at 5,539.45. Records also were set by the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which closed at 656.07, up 6.14, and by 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 , which was up 8.29, to 1,093.17. Following a recent trading pattern Trading pattern Long-range direction of a security or commodity futures price, charted by drawing one line connecting the highest prices the security has reached and another line connecting the lowest prices at which the security has traded over the same period. , prices Thursday weakened in the morning, stabilized in the early afternoon and then surged - especially in the larger, blue-chip stocks - just before the close. "What is interesting is that the focus changes every day," said E. Wayne Nordberg, equity partner, at Lord, Abbett & Co. in New York. "It's extremely volatile on a day-to-day basis. There is no real leadership that has emerged in the advance this year." Nordberg credited lower interest rates and a sluggish economy Sluggish Economy A state in the economy in which the growth is slow, flat or declining. The term can refer to the economy as a whole or a component of the economy, such as weak housing starts. with creating a large pool of cash with little place to go but the financial markets. As consumers pay their debts and companies sell off inventories of goods, the money is flowing into stocks, a situation he does not see changing until the economy begins to pick up perhaps later this year. "This is a classic liquidity-driven market," he said. Advancing stocks outpaced decliners 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. on Thursday, 1,343 to 960. Issues reaching new highs totaled 228, while only 15 set new lows. The New York Stock Exchange Index was up 2.83 points, to 349.15. The American Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Stock exchange in the U.S. Originally known as “the Curb,” it began as an outdoor marketplace in New York City c. 1850. It moved indoors to its present location in the Wall Street area in 1921. composite index Composite Index A grouping of equities, indexes or other factors combined in a standardized way, providing a useful statistical measure of overall market or sector performance over time. Also known simply as a "composite". closed at 564.66, up 2.07. The market's strength so far this year - the Dow is up 8.3 percent since Jan. 1 - has wreaked havoc on the full-year forecasts of several of Wall Street's most well-known strategists. Many had predicted that share prices, which soared in 1995, would level off this year as corporate earnings growth declined. "The amateurs are outdoing the professional so far this year," said Robert H. Stovall, president of Stovall/21st Advisers in New York. With interest rates declining, shares of banking companies were strong. Wells Fargo rose 5, to 258-1/4, and Nationsbank added 3, to 73-1/2. Investors also favored consumer goods companies such as Coca-Cola, which closed at a record 80-1/4, up 2-1/4. Gillette rose 1, to 56-1/4, while Kellogg gained 2, to close at 78-7/8. Oil companies also were among the big winners Thursday. Exxon gained 2, to 82-3/4, while Chevron was up 1-1/2, to 53-3/8. Normally when energy companies gain, industrial stocks slide. But some of the biggest industrials were up Thursday. |
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