Oil Prices Nudge Dow to 3rd High of Week; Yields Climb : Market Overview
Rising crude oil prices sparked a rally in petroleum stocks Friday and helped the Dow Jones industrial average reach its third record high this week.
* Bond yields bounced higher after initially falling on news that consumer inflation remained subdued last month.
Stocks
Investors snapped up oil and related issues after recently depressed crude prices bobbed back above $15 barrel, pushing the Dow Jones average up 10.89 to 3,740.67, which was 36.60 higher than a week before. The previous peak, reached Wednesday, was 3,734.53.
The Nasdaq index lost 0.75 of a point to 760.74.
In the broader market, declining issues outnumbered advances by about 8 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange. Big Board volume slowed to 245.62 million shares.
Among the market highlights:
* Mobil jumped 2 1/8 to 76 1/8, Chevron rose 5/8 to 86 5/8, Exxon rose 5/8 to 62 7/8 and Texaco rose 1 1/2 to 64 3/8.
* Among the active issues on the Big Board, Chrysler climbed 3 1/8 to 56 1/8 in reaction to positive comments by a Salomon Bros. analyst who raised earnings estimates for the company and said its market share could grow significantly.
* Gainers among the blue-chips included IBM, which jumped 1 5/8 to 55 1/4 on heavy NYSE volume after a Dean Witter Reynolds analyst raised profit forecasts for the firm.
* One of the biggest losers was Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, which skidded 5 to 15 on the Nasdaq. The company posted disappointing quarterly earnings Thursday.
* U.S. Long Distance fell 4 to 13 1/2. The company postponed a planned stock offering and said the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal inquiry into the company.
Foreign stocks were mixed. In Tokyo, the Nikkei average closed at 17,257.43, up 195.52. Frankfurt’s DAX average lost 14.67 points to end at 2,161.13, while London’s Financial Times 100-share average ended off 10.3 points at 3,261.3.
Other Markets
Long-term bond yields finished higher largely due to technical trading. Also pushing rates higher was a University of Michigan survey showing a jump in consumer confidence in early December.
The Treasury’s key 30-year bond yield finished the week at 6.20, up from Thursday’s 6.15%. Its price, which moved in opposite directions, fell 21/32 point, or about $6.56 per $1,000 in face value.
Light, sweet crude oil for January delivery ended 44 cents higher at $15.07 a barrel, its first daily settlement above $15 since Dec. 1. Other energy futures prices also rose sharply.
* Gold for current delivery settled at $383.20 an ounce, up 60 cents on the New York Comex.
Silver for current delivery settled at $5.023 an ounce, up 6.2 cents from Thursday.
* The dollar settled lower against most major currencies except the Japanese yen in uneventful, end-of-year trading.
Market Roundup, D4
