NEW YORK -- Stocks ended mixed today as investors sold laggards for tax reasons and bought winners to spruce up year-end statements as 1998 comes to a record-breaking close. Dow falls 93;
up 16% for '98The Dow Jones industrial average fell 93.21 points to end the year at 9,181.43, about 193 points below the Nov. 23 record close of 9,374.27, but a still-impressive gain of 16.1 percent for 1998.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 25.75 to close at 2,192.70 setting another record today as investors sought out better values among smaller-company stocks. The Nasdaq gained 39.63 percent for 1998.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 2.54 points to 1,229.39, but still ended the year up 26.69 percent. The NYSE composite rose 1.61 to 595.88 and ended the year up 16.57 percent; the American Stock Exchange index rose 16.92 to end at 688.99 and was up .64 percent for the year. The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks rose 10.06 to 421.97, its biggest gain in eight weeks. Still, the Russell was down 4 percent for the year.
The price of the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 1/8 point, or $1.25 per $1,000 in face value during an abbreviated trading session on New Year's Eve.
Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 5.09 percent from 5.08 percent late Wednesday. The 30-year bond began 1998 yielding 5.92 percent.
Overseas, Japan's stock market was closed today. Germany's DAX index was down 0.99 percent, Britain's FT-SE 100 was down 0.35 percent, and France's CAC-40 was up 1.24 percent.