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Dow Jones closes
at 14-month high
NEW YORK >> The Dow Jones industrials climbed to their highest close in 14 months yesterday, rising sharply in a quiet session following last week's blackout. Good earnings news from Lowe's and Toys "R" Us helped lift stocks, but there was little other news to influence the market.
"There is some relief," that the outage was short-lived, said Brian Williamson, an equity trader at The Boston Company Asset Management. "We are back in a normal, quiet day."
Stephen Carl, principal and head of equity trading at The Williams Capital Group, said: "It is just a lackluster day."
The upturn followed the lightest session of the year on Friday as the nation coped with the largest power outage in U.S. history, which left 50 million people without power from the East Coast to Michigan. Many traders stayed home Friday, and many others on Wall Street were already gone on summer vacation.
Analysts say that when there's nothing to guide the market, its tendency now is to advance. Wall Street observers credit that upward bias to better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and improving economic data.
The Dow closed yesterday up 90.76, or 1 percent, 9,412.45, having gained 11.13 on Friday. The last time the Dow stood higher at the end of a session was June 20, 2002, when it was at 9,431.77.
The broader market also finished higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 37.48, or 2.2 percent, to 1,739.49, after eking out a gain of 1.67 Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 9.07, or 0.9 percent, to 999.74, after creeping up 0.16 the previous session.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners slightly more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was light at 1.46 billion shares, but well ahead of Friday's 769.49 million shares.
The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, rose 9.00, or 1.9 percent, to 480.92. The NYSE composite index gained 35.65 to close at 5,652.01. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 4.92 to 961.90.
First Energy dropped $2.86 to $27.75. The Ohio-based company owns four of the five power lines that may have triggered the power outage. In another blow, First Energy warned about its $12.5 billion debt and cut earnings estimates.
Strong earnings news contributed to Wall Street's gains.
Lowe's rose $3.06 to $51.96 after reporting second-quarter profits that exceeded analysts' expectations by 6 cents a share and saying it anticipates beating Wall Street's yearly earnings estimate.
Toys "R" Us traded up 83 cents to $12.71 after raising its yearly earnings outlook.
AnnTaylor advanced 31 cents to $33.90 after UBS Warburg raised its rating on the retailer to "buy" from "neutral."
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