FINANCIAL MARKETS : STOCKS : Dow Gets in Holiday Mood, Advances 22.07
The stock market broke the stalemate of the past several sessions with a rally in quiet pre-holiday trading Thursday.
The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials climbed 22.07 to 2,751.80, finishing the week with a net gain of 34.68 points.
That snapped a streak of six consecutive trading days in which the Dow industrials neither rose nor fell by as much as 10 points.
Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 8 to 5 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 908 up, 573 down and 518 unchanged.
Big Board volume was 142.47 million shares, against 141.08 million in the previous session.
Nationwide, consolidated volume in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 173.70 million shares.
Analysts said traders came into the session with low expectations, given the market’s recent sluggish behavior and the approach of a long holiday weekend. The markets will be closed for Good Friday.
In that kind of environment, observers said, an absence of selling pressure helped produce some pleasant surprises in the price fluctuations of individual stocks.
The government reported that retail sales dropped 0.6% in March, in contrast to advance estimates of a small increase. That served as a new suggestion of continued sluggish, erratic economic growth, along with possibly less upward pressure on interest rates than has been feared of late.
Brokers also noted that favorable profit reports from several companies contributed to the upbeat mood. For example, Chemical Banking, which posted higher quarterly profits, gained 1 1/8 to 24 1/2. Most other money-center bank issues moved up in sympathy.
Federal National Mortgage jumped 1 3/4 to 36 3/4 after reporting on Wednesday a 67% increase in its first-quarter profit.
Fannie Mae warrants, which give their owners the right to buy the stock at $14.75 a share, rose 1 1/2 to 21 7/8.
Capital Cities/ABC jumped 15 1/4 to 541 1/2, apparently on optimism about earnings. Elsewhere, Teledyne tumbled 3 1/4 to 67 7/8 after reporting that earnings from continuing operations fell 7% in the first quarter.
Vons lost 1 1/4 to 21 1/4. But the drop appeared to be the result of a single trade of a large block rather than broad selling, traders said.
Gainers among the blue chip industrials included GE, up 1 1/8 at 66; IBM, up 3/4 at 107 1/8; McDonald’s, up 1/2 at 32 5/8; Procter & Gamble, up 1/2 at 71 1/4, and Coca-Cola, up 1/2 at 80 1/2.
In Tokyo, the 225-share Nikkei stock index closed at 29,623.20, up 182.92 points, or 0.62%. In Frankfurt, the DAX index jumped 24.40 points, or 1.3%, to 1,918.17, driven by foreign demand for shares, traders said.
In London, shares closed mixed with a firmer tone taking heart from gains on Wall Street, but volume was light ahead of the Easter holiday. The Financial Times 100-share index closed up 6.6 at 2,222.1.
