’Net stocks lead
market rally

NEW YORK -- Internet stocks once again led a record-setting rally on Wall Street today.

Amazon.com Inc., the top Internet retailer, Yahoo! Inc.,the No. 1 Internet directory, eBay Inc., an online auctioneer, and other Internet-related companies rose on optimism that they'll benefit from booming Internet sales.

The surge in Internet shares, which continues to befuddle Wall Street analysts, comes after Amazon.com said yesterday that fourth-quarter sales almost quadrupled to $250 million, though it also said higher sales won't translate into a narrower loss.

On Wall Street today, top market indexes all posted record closes. (See story, page A-1.)

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 233.78 to 9,544.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 27.53 to 1,272.31, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 69.59 to 2,320.86.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,013 up, 1,117 down and 441 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 977.33 million shares vs. 773.65 million yesterday.

The NYSE composite index rose 11.10 at 611.01, and the American Stock Exchange composite index gained 9.26 to 701.47, while the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 5.70 to 427.79.

The 30-year bond rose 1/2, or $5 per $1,000 bond, pushing yields down 3 basis points to 5.17 percent by late afternoon. Yields earlier reached 5.23 percent, the highest since Nov. 23. In late New York trading, the dollar climbed to 112.99 yen from 111.57.