NEW YORK >> Momentum from Wall Street's big rally spilled over to today's session, lifting most stocks for a third straight day and helping the market snap a two-week losing streak. Stocks mixed
after rally
By Amy Baldwin
Associated PressBut investors exhibited some caution, not surprising after yesterday's gains, which were the best the market had seen in five months. While investors are more confident that a U.S. war with Iraq would be short and successful, they were wary of making further commitments ahead of the weekend.
Analysts were impressed that Wall Street added to its rally, a sign of strength rarely seen in market beaten down by a tepid economic recovery and war jitters. But today's gains were hard won and the market had to fight off earlier declines.
"Normally, you would expect some profit taking after a big run like yesterday. ... But you have to be pretty encouraged that the market is holding up pretty well," said John Caldwell, chief equity strategist for McDonald Financial Group, part of Cleveland-based KeyCorp.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners nearly 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was moderate but at the healthiest levels it has been at all year, as was the case yesterday.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 37.96, or 0.5 percent, at 7,859.71. Yesterday, the Dow surged 269.68 in its biggest one-day advance since Oct. 15. In three session, the Dow has gained 335.79.
The broader market was narrowly mixed. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 0.53 to 1,340.24, following yesterday's advance of 61.53, also its best one-day climb since Oct. 15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.36, or 0.2 percent, to 833.26, after gaining 27.71 yesterday, its second best day of 2003. The Russell 2000 index fell 1.05, or 0.3 percent, to 354.39.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was up 5/16 point, while its yield fell to 3.71 percent from 3.75 percent late yesterday. Two-year Treasury notes were up 3/32 point and yielded 1.54 percent, down from 1.60 percent yesterday.
Analysts said the market was unmoved by disappointing economic news, this time on inflation and business inventories. Investors are more preoccupied by war developments, as seen by yesterday's rally that came despite weaker-than-expected retail sales for February.
Today, the Labor Department reported inflation at the wholesale level, as measured by the Producer Price Index, jumped 1 percent in February as energy prices surged by the largest amount since the buildup to the Gulf War 12 years ago. Last month's increase followed a 1.6 percent rise in January, which had been the biggest one-month gain in 13 years.
Separately, the Commerce Department said business inventories grew for a ninth straight month in January, rising by 0.2 percent, but the pace of inventory building slowed, indicating that companies are wary about restocking.
Corning rose 20 cents to $5.90 after UBS Warburg upgraded the fiber optics maker to "buy."
Software maker Adobe climbed $2.27 to $30.79 on fiscal first-quarter profits that topped analysts' expectations by 3 cents a share.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished up 1.7 percent. In Europe, France's CAC-40 surged 7.3 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 3.3 percent and Germany's DAX index gained 2.1 percent.
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