NEW YORK -- Blue-chip stocks failed to hold big gains again today, but smaller companies led the market to a fifth straight winning session. Dow up 39.40
The Dow Jones industrial average finished just 39.40 points higher at 8,505.85 despite rising as much as 186 points in the early afternoon. But even a modest gain was enough to extend the Dow's rally to five sessions and notch its first close above 8,500 since Aug. 26, the day before a three-session sell-off that sliced 1,000 points off the Dow.
The Dow has now risen 567 points in five sessions, with most of that gain coming after last Thursday's surprise interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve.
In less than two weeks, the Dow has risen nearly 1,100 points from the bottom of a steep slide that threatened to push it below the summer low of 7,400.
Broader stock indicators also succumbed to some profit taking, but held up better than the Dow.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.54 to 1,063.93, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 9.55 to 1,639.18.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,138 up, 1,010 down and 393 unchanged.
NYSE volume totaled 947.47 million shares, up from 714.79 million yesterday.
The NYSE composite index rose 2.78 to 528.28, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 10.55 to 616.27.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 5.86 to 358.31.
The 30-year Treasury bond fell 1 2/32 to 106 30/32, with the yield rising to 5.05 percent.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average rose 1.8 percent.