Dow Posts 3rd Straight Gain; Nasdaq Lags
It was a day like most others on Wall Street, at least lately: Blue chips rose Tuesday while smaller stocks lagged.
The Dow Jones industrials continued to rebound from last week’s slide, adding 30.01 points to 7,038.21, after surging 76.58 points on Monday.
In the broad market, winners topped losers by 14 to 12 on the New York Stock Exchange, a thinner margin than on Monday. Trading was heavy.
The Nasdaq market of mostly smaller stocks, meanwhile, barely eked out a gain, with the composite index up 2.61 points at 1,347.69.
“This is a resilient market,” said Larry Wachtel, analyst at Prudential Securities. “If the market gives investors a buying opportunity, they will buy.”
They’ll buy blue chips, anyway. The Dow was led higher by its energy stocks, including Chevron, up 1 3/4 to 68, and by such household names as 3M, up 3 1/2 to 90, and IBM, up 2 5/8 to 146 1/2. The index finished just 30 points from its record high of 7,067.46 set Feb. 18.
In the bond market, yields were little changed ahead of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan’s testimony before Congress today on the economy. The yield on the Treasury’s main 30-year bond nudged up to 6.66% from 6.65% on Monday.
The Treasury sold $17.5 billion of new two-year notes Tuesday at an unexpectedly high yield of 5.885%, though that was down from 5.984% at the Jan. 22 auction.
Five-year notes are to be auctioned today.
In currency trading, the dollar continued to give back recent gains, as traders fretted that Japanese companies will bring money home from abroad before the end of the fiscal year March 31.
The dollar ended at 121.60 yen in New York, down 0.58 yen from Monday.
Among Tuesday’s highlights:
* Buying interest in retail stocks helped prop up the market, as several major chains reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, including Home Depot, up 2 7/8 to 55 1/8; Wal-Mart, up 1 3/4 to 26 3/8; and Limited, up 1/2 to 18 1/2.
Among other retailers, Sears rose 1 to 54 7/8, Dillard Department Stores jumped 1 5/8 to 29 3/4 and Federated Department Stores added 1 to 35 1/4.
* Some technology shares advanced. Micron Technology rose 1 1/8 to 38 after the company said DRAM computer chip prices continue to rise. Other tech winners included Hewlett-Packard, up 2 1/2 to 59; Vitesse Semiconductor, up 2 3/8 to 45 3/4; and Adobe Systems, up 1 3/8 to 37 7/8.
But Cisco Systems lost 2 1/2 to 56 1/2 after it warned of slower growth in its international markets. And Motorola fell 1 3/8 to 57 3/8 after Dataquest said the firm has lost digital phone market share.
* Merck eased 5/8 to 97 3/4 even though the drug giant said it will buy back an additional $5 billion worth of its shares, after finishing a current $3-billion buyback, which is mostly completed.
* United Auto Group plummeted 6 5/8 to 24 3/4 after the auto retailer said it sees lower-than-expected earnings in the near term because of higher expenses.
* Centennial Technologies rocketed 10 1/4 to 14 3/4 on a flurry of orders from small investors. The shares had plunged in recent weeks, and incurred a weeklong suspension of trading, after allegations surfaced of phony accounting. But the new chief executive brought in to fix the company said Tuesday that “almost all” of the sales it has reported are real.
Market Roundup, D6
