NEW YORK - The Nasdaq stock market sprinted to another record today as investors gave Internet retailers a boost at the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. But stocks overall had a mixed performance in light post-Thanksgiving trading. Dow off 19.26
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 19.26 to 10,988.91 while the Nasdaq gained 27.31 to 3,447.81 for its 16th record in the past four weeks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 0.46 at 1,416.62.
For the week, the Nasdaq added 78.56, and is now up 57.24 percent so far this year. The Dow was off 14.98 for the week while the S&P 500 slipped 5.38.
Decliners beat advancers by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 310.2 million shares in the abbreviated session, down from 732.9 million on Wednesday.
The NYSE composite index gained 0.32 to 639.95, the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 5.25 to 830.40 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.01 to 458.94.
The 30-year Treasury bond fell 9/32 to a price of 98 18/32, pushing the yield up 2 basis points to 6.23 percent, a four-week high.
"A tremendous pocket of strength in technology is pulling up the Nasdaq," said Richard McCabe, chief market analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co.
But he cautioned that overall declining stocks are outpacing advancers, which should raise a yellow flag of caution to investors.
Online retailer eToys Inc. rose $2.25 to $66.621/2, along with Amazon.com Inc., up $5.871/2 to $93.121/2 as Wall Street has high hopes for brisk online selling in the next month. Toys "R" Us Inc. gained $1.25 to $18.371/2.