Dow up 118,
nears 9,000

NEW YORK -- Stocks rose to records, sending the Dow Jones industrial average within 3 points of 9,000, as optimism spread that the flood of money into mutual funds won't slow anytime soon.

The Dow industrials rallied 118.32, or 1.3 percent, to close at a record 8986.64.

Advancers beat decliners by a 11-to-7 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,785 up, 1,217 down and 501 unchanged. NYSE volume was 669.17 million shares vs. 672.51 million yesterday.

Broad market indexes also rose to record closes.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 11.86 to a record 1120.01, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 5.30 to 1852.96, also a record.

The small company-dominated American Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.88 to 747.03 and the Russell 2000 index gained 1.49 points to end at 486.42.

U.S. bonds rose, pushing yields to their lowest in six weeks, amid speculation that tomorrow's government release on jobs and wages for March won't point to faster inflation. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 1/2 point, or $5 per $1,000 bond, by late afternoon, pushing its yield down to 5.84 percent from 5.89 late yesterday.

"Money is chasing money," said William O'Connor, manager of Milwaukee-based Marshall Large-Cap Growth & Income Fund, which has $335 million in assets. "Money managers don't get paid to sit on cash, so they're putting it into stocks that are going up. The pressure to perform is very high."

Overseas today, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 3.3 percent.