NEW YORK -- Stocks extended a belated "Santa Claus" rally today, lifting the Dow Jones industrial average back toward 8,000 with just one session left in 1997. Dow extends
‘Santa Claus’ rally; up 123.56The Dow rose 123.56 points to close at 7,915.97, padding yesterday's 113-point jump and pushing this year's gain toward 23 percent.
Advancers led decliners by nearly a 3-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,210 up, 802 down and 452 unchanged. NYSE volume was 498.97 million shares vs. 441.25 million yesterday.
Broad-market indicators also rose sharply, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index boosting this year's spoils to 31 percent and the Nasdaq composite index increasing its 1997 gain to 21 percent.
Barring a steep decline tomorrow, it will be the first time that the Dow and the S&P 500 have posted better-than 20 percent gains for three straight years. Both measures have more than doubled over that span.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list today rose 17.49 to 970.84, moving within 13 points of record territory. The NYSE composite index climbed 8.79 to 510.28, about 4 points from a new closing high.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 27.58 to 1,565.03, the American Stock Exchange composite index gained 9.62 to 678.91, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 7.34 to 434.01.
Meanwhile, the price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was down 21/32 point, or $6.56 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.97 percent from 5.92 percent yesterday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average rose 3.3 percent, Frankfurt's DAX index rose 1.2 percent and London's FT-SE 100 rose 0.4 percent.