NEW YORK -- Stock prices rose today as technology shares, which had threatened yesterday to end their spectacular run, bounced back on announcements of strong earnings, stock splits and a merger thrown in for good measure. Dow climbs 81
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 81.10 to close at 9,281.33. But the blue-chip index failed to make back yesterday's 124-point loss, and analysts were downbeat about the fact that advancers were barely leading decliners on the New York Stock Exchange.
Advancers beat decliners by 1,552 to 1,422 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 541 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 850.63 million shares vs. 893 million yesterday.
"Market leadership is almost entirely technology," said Christine Callies, chief investment strategist at Credit Suisse First Boston. "Market advances can't continue indefinitely when most of the strength is in one group. It either has to broaden out or step back and regroup, because the leadership is way too narrow."
Still, advances in technology shares pushed broader indexes sharply higher.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 22.20 to 1,265.37, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index soared 70.20, or 2.92 percent, to 2,477.34, a record close. The NYSE composite index gained 7.32 to 595.40, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 6.74 to 713.93. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.85 to 423.97.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 11/32 point, or $3.44 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield fell to 5.11 percent from 5.12 percent late yesterday.