Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
NEW YORK -- The possibility of future interest-rate cuts lifted the stock market higher today, sending the Nasdaq composite index back above 3,000. Rate-cut hopes lift
Nasdaq over 3,000Star-Bulletin news services
Trading was light on Wall Street as investors awaited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could potentially end the month-old presidential deadlock.
"It's been a real up and down kind of day, subject to the whims of what people hear on TV" about the election, said Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist for Prime Charter Ltd. "The fact is that the market's entire tone has improved dramatically since the Fed . . . basically told everybody that the slowdown we're seeing is not going to be allowed to dive into a recession."
The Nasdaq rose 97.67 to 3,015.10, a 3.4 percent gain. The last time it closed above 3,000 was Nov. 17. Blue-chip gains were more modest. The Dow Jones industrial average lost steam toward the close and ended up just 12.89 at 10,725.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.31 to 1,380.20.
Advancers outnumbered decliners 12 to 11 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,669 up, 1,181 down and 465 unchanged. Volume was 1.21 billion compared with 1.34 billion on Friday. The NYSE composite index rose 2.16 to 657.53, the American Stock Exchange composite index gained 11.81 to 885.30 and the Russell 2000 index was up 8.16 at 487.23.
The Treasury's 10-year note fell 14/32 to 102 30/32; its yield rose 6 basis points to 5.36 percent. The 30-year bond fell 18/32 to 110 9/32; its yield climbed 4 basis points to 5.54 percent.
Barton Biggs of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and at least four other Wall Street strategists' comments that stocks are likely to rally further also helped lift share prices. Stocks now offer "one of the five most attractive opportunities of the past 20 years," Edward Kerschner, UBS Warburg LLC's chief global strategist, said in a report to clients. Kerschner is ranked by money managers as the best strategist in Institutional Investor magazine's survey.
The markets also advanced today primarily on the strength of technology issues. After weeks of shunning the sector as too risky, investors changed their minds and began buying the stocks. Microsoft rose $3.63 to $58.06 and Intel jumped $3.44 to $37.44.
But Sun Microsystems fell $4.94 to $34, its fourth straight loss, and was the most-active stock with 151 million shares trading. Sun Microsystems fell after Goldman, Sachs & Co. analyst Laura Conigliaro said the computer maker is less likely to beat analyst estimates for the next two quarters.