S&P, NASDAQ HIT HIGH MARKS.Byline: Jonathan Fuerbringer 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 Forget the Federal Reserve and the threat of higher interest rates. That seemed to be the message from investors Friday as they snapped up stocks, sending two market gauges to new highs and leaving 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. just 40 points short of a record. The other message was buy technology stocks, as 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 jumped 1.97 percent, putting it up 60.56 percent for the year. The Nasdaq rose 67.85 points Friday to a new high of 3,520.63, crossing 3,500 just 21 trading days after breeching breeching 1. part of a set of cart harness. A broad strap running horizontally across the backs of the thighs and attached in front to the shafts. Essential in the backing of the vehicle. 2. The longer hair at the caudal thighs of dogs. 3,000. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 24.26 points, or 1.72 percent, to a new high of 1,433.30. And the Dow Jones industrial average was up 247.12 points, or 2.24 percent, to 11,286.18. At the same time, the recent surge is spreading to many stocks that had been forgotten for most of the year. The Russell index of smaller company stocks, for example, had one of its best days of the year, jumping 4.14 points, or 0.9 percent, to 464.58 and is now up 10.1 percent for the year. Among the big names leading the rally were Hewlett Packard, 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) , J.P. Morgan, General Electric and Microsoft. ``I am very comfortable with the fundamentals,'' said Jeffrey Applegate, chief U.S. strategist at Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH), founded in 1850, is a diversified, global financial services firm. It is a participant in investment banking, equity and fixed income sales, research and trading, investment management, private equity, and private banking. . But, he added, the stock market has moved awfully far, awfully fast. ``I would think having a correction before too long is likely and would be helpful,'' he said. Friday's rally came after the Labor Department The Department of Labor (DOL) administers federal labor laws for the Executive Branch of the federal government. Its mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working reported the unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 4.1 percent while the economy created 234,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs. The report also showed average hourly earnings rose just 0.1 percent in November, down from 0.3 percent in October. The report was a relief for bond traders because the jobs increase was in line with forecasts and the wage data showed a slight month-to-month slowdown, easing inflationary fears. That news sparked a rally in bonds, which sent the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond down to 6.25 percent Friday from 6.31 percent Thursday. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond, which moves in the opposite direction from the yield, rose 0.8125, to 98.2512. Stocks rallied from the opening bell Friday. By 11:06 a.m. EST EST electroshock therapy. EST abbr. electroshock therapy , the Dow was up more than 300 points and 15 points above its record high of 11,326.04, which was set Aug. 25. The Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 indexes were in hot pursuit. By the close of trading, the stocks had given up some of their gains but the market was still markedly higher on the day. ``This is amazing,'' said Douglas Cliggott, the U.S. equity strategist at J.P. Morgan Securities, of Friday's stock rally. But, he added, ``I can scratch the surface in explaining it but I cannot understand it.'' He said the rally in technology stocks is in part accounted for by a change in the preferences of individual investors. In past years, he said, the flows of cash into mutual funds concentrating on value stocks Value stocks Stocks with low price/book ratios or price/earnings ratios. Historically, value stocks have enjoyed higher average returns than growth stocks (stocks with high price/book or P/E ratios) in a variety of countries. and those concentrating on growth stocks were about even. But he said this year, based on the most recent data from AMG AMG All Music Guide (music website) AMG All Media Guide (group of media websites) AMG All Movie Guide (Movie website) AMG Arzneimittelgesetz (German Law) Data Services, $7 billion has been taken out of value funds while $97 billion has been put into growth funds. ``You've got the earnings growth. You've got inflation looking tame. And the Fed does not have to be aggressive,'' said Richard Berner, the chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, outlining the mood of the stock market. ``What more could you ask for in terms of equities?'' |
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