Dow Climbs 28 to Post-Crash High; Week’s Gain Is 102
The stock market shot up on Friday to its highest close since the October crash as the market, fresh from digesting Wednesday’s big gains, was powered forward by computer-directed program trading.
The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials climbed 28.02 points to 2,090.19, bringing its gain for the week to 102.13 points.
The index’s previous closing high for the year was 2,087.37 on March 18.
Advancing issues outnumbered declines by more than 5 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Big Board volume totaled 169.30 million shares, against 177.84 million in the previous session. The NYSE’s composite index rose 1.75 to 152.03.
The Dow was nearly motionless Thursday as the dollar edged lower, but renewed confidence on Friday that the Group of Seven industrial nations would agree to support the dollar around current levels revived the stock market.
A stronger dollar would reduce pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to defend the U.S. currency.
Wall Street investors also were cheered by predictions of a third consecutive shrinking U.S. monthly trade deficit. The Commerce Department is scheduled to report the February trade report on Thursday and economists say a good trade figure would stiffen up the dollar.
Bonds Rally
“We’re looking for (a deficit of) $11 billion,” said Jerome Hinkle, a trading strategist at Sanford C. Bernstein. The January shortfall reported last month came to $12.4 billion.
Also buoying the stock market on Friday were a bond market rally and a continuing swirl of takeover speculation.
Brokers also say investors are looking for generally strong corporate earnings reports for the first quarter over the next few weeks.
Staley Continental led the NYSE active list and jumped 5 7/8 to 37 5/8. Tate & Lyle PLC of Great Britain announced a $32-a-share offer for the company’s stock.
Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland, an other company in the corn-processing business, rose 1 1/8 to 22 5/8.
General Electric, whose first-quarter earnings report Thursday got favorable reviews from analysts, gained 1 to 42 1/2.
Among other actively traded blue chips, International Business Machines picked up 2 3/8 to 111 5/8, Ford Motor rose 1 1/8 to 46 5/8, Eastman Kodak gained to 42 and American Telephone & Telegraph added 1/8 to 28 1/8.
Quantum Corp. fell 1 to 10 in the over-the-counter market. The company said it would have a loss for the quarter and fiscal year ended March 31 arising from a one-time charge related to a changeover in its disk drive production facilities.
Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 3,682, compared to Thursday’s total of 3,684.
Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 197.80 million shares.
The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 2,670.463, up 27.354.
Standard & Poor’s index of 400 industrials rose 3.87 to 313.60, and S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was up 3.27 at 269.43.
The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market gained 2.95 to 381.83. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index closed at 300.49, up 1.11.
In Tokyo, stocks closed lower Friday, taking a breather after rocketing to record-high territory in the previous session.
Traders said that a slightly weaker dollar and a lack of fresh news to keep the surge going prompted some investors to step to the sidelines.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225-share index lost 20.33 points to close at 26,748.89.
In London, the Financial Times 100-share index closed up 7.4 points at 1,745.0.
