Broad Market Declines but Dow Closes Up 89
The stock market ended the week as it began, with most stocks falling modestly, even though major indexes were mixed.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 89.85 points, or 1%, to 8,919.59, which trimmed its loss for the week to just 55.87 points, or 0.6%.
But losers slightly outnumbered winners on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, as well as on Nasdaq.
The Nasdaq composite index eased 0.2% for the day and 0.5% for the week.
Trading was light Friday as many investors took to the sidelines, worried about the potential for a new U.S. military strike at Iraq over the weekend, and uncertain about the course of interest rates, with Federal Reserve policymakers meeting on Tuesday.
“Tuesday will be anticlimactic for those who have already factored in [another] rate cut, and if we don’t have one, it will be a big disappointment,” said Richard Cripps, chief market strategist for Legg Mason in Baltimore.
Treasury bond yields were mostly flat on Friday. The 30-year T-bond yield ended unchanged at 5.25%. It was down from 5.39% a week ago.
The hot action on Friday was again in the Internet-related stock sector, as the initial public offering of Theglobe.com soared 606% from its $9 offering price to close at $63.50--the biggest first-day percentage gain ever for an IPO.
But most other Net-related stocks finished lower after soaring earlier in the week.
Among Friday’s highlights:
* The Dow was boosted by financial stocks, which some analysts said was attributable to optimism that an international aid package for Brazil will shore up that economy and halt the global financial crisis’ spread.
J.P. Morgan jumped $3.25 to $101.88 and American Express rose $2.19 to $94.56.
Among banks, BankAmerica rose $2.69 to $58.44 and Chase Manhattan rose $2.06 to $57.19.
* GM also gave the Dow a lift, surging $3.25 to $70.25. Ford rose $1.38 to $53.38.
The auto makers were helped by a report showing strong car sales in October, as well as healthy retail sales in general.
That news helped retail stocks, with Sears up $2.38 to $46.88, J.C. Penney up $2.56 to $51, May Department Stores up $2 to $59.56 and Gap up $2.75 to $68.88.
* Major computer stocks were weak, reflecting disappointment with Dell Computer’s quarterly earnings report on Thursday. Dell lost $5.25 to $63.94 despite slightly beating Wall Street estimates.
Gateway lost $3.75 to $52.88, Compaq fell 31 cents to $33.56 and IBM eased 44 cents to $157.44.
* In the Internet sector most of the big names fell sharply in profit taking. Amazon.com lost $3.25 to $127.75, Yahoo sank $5.25 to $168, Inktomi dropped $3.31 to $124.25 and EBay lost $2.06 to $123.94.
But Infonautics, an information-search company that provides data on publicly traded companies, zoomed $3.25 to $5.63.
And Go2Net soared $9.75 to $39.25 after the company reported an operating profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 of 2 cents a share on record advertising revenue from its Web sites. Sales rose 47% to $1.96 million from the previous quarter and more than sixfold from the year-earlier period.
But K-tel International dropped $8.25 to $19.75 after the seller of music, videos and other entertainment said it had a loss, including a charge, of 37 cents a share in the first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with earnings of 15 cents a year earlier, as sales dropped.
The company has made a big deal of its plans to sell its music over the Internet.
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Market Roundup, C4
