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Dow rockets 253
to retake 11,000The S&P 500 hits a record for the
Star-Bulletin news services
2nd straight day while the Nasdaq
approaches 5,000 againNEW YORK -- Stocks advanced broadly today, carrying the Dow over 11,000 for the first time in seven weeks, as a rally in high-tech issues spread throughout Wall Street.
Microsoft Corp. touched off the advance after The Wall Street Journal reported that the software maker and the government were accelerating talks toward resolving their long-standing antitrust case.
The advance, which also drove the Standard & Poor's 500 index into record territory for the third straight day, cemented a stunning comeback by the Dow, which had closed as low as 9,811.24 just last week.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 253.16, or 2.33 percent, today to 11,119.86. It last closed above 11,000 on Feb. 3.
The high-tech dominated Nasdaq composite index rose 75.86, or 1.56 percent, to 4,940.61, while the S&P 500, which surpassed 1,500 for the first time yesterday, gained another 26.71, or 1.78 percent, to 1,527.35.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining issues by an 8-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,833 up, 1,158 down and 479 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 1.068 billion vs. 1.075 million yesterday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 2.60 at 573.79; the American Stock Exchange composite rose 6.16 to 1,036.40; the NYSE composite advanced 9.07 to 652.31.
The rally lifted industrial blue chips as fund managers scrambled to put their cash to work in stocks before the end of the first quarter next week.
"It's been a very strong quarter in terms of tech stocks as well as flows into mutual funds, so there's a lot of pressure on fund managers to be fully invested by the end of the quarter," said Ricky Harrington, technical analyst at Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C.
But the real stars of the day were the major high-tech shares, which shot higher from the opening following a report in the Journal that Microsoft and the government are moving forward in their talks aimed at settling the government's antitrust case against the software maker.
Microsoft was up sharply as were many other big-name technology stocks. Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of computer-networking equipment, rose after splitting its stock for the eighth time in as many years.
Intel Corp. declined, limiting the gains. The world's biggest computer-chip maker, and fourth-largest U.S. stock, surged 22 percent in the past six sessions.
A sharp rally in the bond market was also making its presence felt on Wall Street. With fewer places to put their money and long-term bond yields having fallen in recent weeks, fund managers were looking again at stocks to buy in order to put their cash to work by the end of the quarter. The 30-year bond's price climbed 22/32 point, or $6.87 per $1,000 face amount; its yield dropped 5 basis points to 5.91 percent, the lowest level since Aug. 25. The 10-year bond yield fell 7 basis points to 6.04 percent.