Stocks Edge Up on Mixed News
Stocks rallied modestly Friday despite another drop in the dollar and a surge in energy prices.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which on Thursday closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time in 18 months, added 34 points, or 0.3%, to 10,042.16.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 2.93 points, or 0.3%, to 1,074.14, and the Nasdaq composite rose 6.68 points, or 0.3%, to 1,949.00.
Indexes of smaller stocks also rallied after recent profit taking. The Russell 2,000 index rose 4.67 points, or 0.9%, to 547.59.
Rising stocks outnumbered losers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and by more than 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.
The blue-chip Dow was helped by upbeat 2004 earnings forecasts from two of its 30 member companies -- Coca-Cola and United Technologies. Coke rose 98 cents to $49.37, a 52-week high; United Technologies jumped $2.33 to a record $91.60.
Those reports helped offset a disappointing consumer confidence report from the University of Michigan.
Stocks also were underpinned by a government report showing a small decline in wholesale prices last month. That reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve won’t be in any hurry to raise interest rates.
Treasury bond yields were little changed Friday.
For the week, the Dow gained 1.8%, the S&P; 500 rose 1.2% and Nasdaq was up 0.6%. The Russell 2,000 rose 1.6%.
Wall Street had other things it could have been upset about Friday, but it chose to ignore them.
Crude oil rose to a three-week high after OPEC’s president said the group may cut production targets at a February meeting to bolster already-high prices.
Near-term oil futures in New York rose $1.19 to $33.04 a barrel.
Natural gas prices resumed their recent climb, with near-term futures jumping 61 cents to a nine-month high of $7.22 per million British thermal units.
In currency trading, the dollar fell to a record low against the euro after Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said the buck’s slide “has been orderly.”
That suggested the Bush administration was content to allow the dollar to continue declining, analysts said. Although a lower dollar helps U.S. exporters, it can make foreign investors less willing to invest in the United States because of fears of further devaluation.
The euro ended at $1.229, up from $1.219 on Thursday. The dollar also fell against other major currencies. It ended at 107.68 yen, down from 107.99.
“The market is sensitive to any fresh signal the administration is validating dollar weakness,” said Tim Stewart, chief currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Snow later said his comment did not indicate a change in U.S. policy. “As I’ve said many times, we have a strong-dollar policy,” he said.
Gold continued to rally as the dollar fell. Near-term futures jumped $4.80 to $409.40 an ounce, the highest since 1996.
On Wall Street, the initial public stock offering of International Steel Group got a rousing reception on its first trading day. It soared $7.20, or 26%, to $35.20 on the NYSE.
*
Market Roundup, C4-5
