NEW YORK -- Stocks made broad gains today, pushing the Nasdaq and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes to record highs, as investors ignored a slumping dollar and bonds and and bought a wide selection of equities. Dow up 126.9
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 126.92 to close at 9,311.19. The Dow got as high as as 9,338 during today's session, coming within 44 points of its record closing high of 9,374.27 last Nov. 23.
On the Big Board, advancers beat decliners by a 5-to-4 margin with 1,732 up, 1,358 down and 488 unchanged. NYSE volume was 773.63 million shares, vs. 875.2 million yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 16.68 to 1,244.78, topping its previous closing record of 1,241.81 on Dec. 29. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 43.22 to 2,251.27, a record close for the third straight session and the seventh record in 10 trading sessions.
The NYSE composite index rose 5.79 to 559.91, and the American Stock Exchange composite index advanced 8.60 to 692.21. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies added 0.83 to 422.09.
Stocks rose despite a sharp drop in the dollar against the yen that produced an equally sharp decline in bond prices. The dollar was trading at just over 111 yen. The 30-year U.S. government bond was down 27/32 point. Its yield, which moves opposite the price, was just above 5.2 percent from 5.15 percent yesterday.
Peter Canelo, market strategist at Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter Reynolds said stock investors didn't view the dollar's drop against the yen as critical, because the dollar was stronger against European currencies in the wake of the euro kickoff yesterday.