IBM-led Dow
up 106.8 to record

NEW YORK - Stocks were mostly higher today on reports showing moderate inflation. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 hit new records. But weakness in some technology shares pulled the Nasdaq stock market lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 106.82 to close at a record 11,107.19, breezing past its previous record of 11,031.59 posted Friday. The Dow is 21 percent so far this year.

The S&P 500 rose 3.56 to a record close of 1,367.56, beating yesterday's record. But the Nasdaq composite fell 24.54 to end at 2,582.00.

Advancers beat decliners by a 9-to-6 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,797 up, 1,193 down and 562 unchanged. NYSE volume was 791.44 million vs. 827.65 million yesterday.

The Treasury's 30-year bond's price rose 1 point, or $10 per $1,000 in value,; its yield fell to 5.75 percent from 5.82 percent yesterday.

IBM Corp. led the Dow higher after Merrill Lynch & Co. raised its prediction for how much the stock would rise over the next 12 months. That came after an analyst meeting yesterday during which chairman Louis Gerstner said Internet would play a large part in IBM's future, and that a quarter of IBM's 1998 revenues came from electronic commerce.

The market got a boost from a Labor Department report that the producer price index rose 0.5 percent in April as the price of gas jumped significantly. But the index's core rate, which strips away volatile food and energy costs, was up just 0.1 percent, indicating little inflationary pressure.