Stocks Continue February Rally; Dollar Slips
The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 8,500 for the first time on Thursday as stocks posted modest gains to extend February’s record-setting rally.
The blue-chip barometer pulled back slightly before the close, finishing 32.89 higher at 8,490.67, its second straight closing record.
The dollar slid to 127.18 yen on new signs that Japan might soon take aggressive steps to bolster its flagging economy and on the view that Germany’s economy will gradually return to health.
In the bond market, the bellwether 30-year Treasury bond price fell $3.75 on a $1,000 bond. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction of the price, rose to 5.95% from 5.92% at Wednesday’s close.
The Dow, which rose as high as 8,503 during the final hour of trading, has now rallied about 800 points from January’s low and about 1,500 points from the bottom of late October’s sell-off.
Broader-market indexes also closed at record highs.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 5.77 points to 1,048.67, the New York Stock Exchange composite rose 3.01 points to 543.39, and the Nasdaq composite rose 10.63 points to 1,777.11, with all three measures setting new highs.
Once again, however, there were no significant developments behind the market’s advance, with most analysts attributing Thursday’s gains to a continuing flood of money back into the market after so many months of uncertainty.
“It’s a continuation of the same pattern: upside momentum and money coming into the market at a very high rate, just business as usual,” said Ricky Harrington, technical analyst at Interstate/Johnson Lane in Charlotte, N.C.
Halliburton’s announcement that it will buy Dresser Industries for $8.9 billion in stock and assumed debt, forming the world’s leading provider of drilling and construction services to the oil industry, lifted other oil-service companies. Baker Hughes rose $3.88 to $40.63 and Schlumberger was up $2.25 to $75.88. Halliburton rose $2.50 to $46.50, while Dresser jumped $5.81 to $44.50.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3-to-2 margin on the NYSE, where volume totaled 646.92 million shares.
The Russell 2,000 index of smaller companies rose 3.08 points to 461.57, less than four points from the Oct. 13 record of 465.21.
The small-company dominated American Stock Exchange composite index rose 8.63 points to 700.42.
Among market highlights:
* Aerospace stocks were prominent among the day’s gainers on the Dow, with Boeing rising $2.69 to $53.94 and jet engine maker United Technologies up $2.44 to $89.94.
* Compaq Computer fell $1.13 to $32.88 on concern that the computer maker has too much inventory and will have to give up several weeks of sales while existing inventory sells through.
* Autodesk jumped $5 to $49.88 after the computer-software company said fourth-quarter earnings rose to 60 cents a diluted share from 13 cents a year earlier, beating the 56-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by IBES International.
Overseas, London’s FTSE 100 closed at 5,764.8, up 19.7 points, or 0.34%. In Tokyo, the 225-share Nikkei average closed at 16,501.70, up 141.06 points, or 0.86%.
Market Roundup, D6
