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‘Window dressing’
boosts Wall Street
NEW YORK >> Wall Street rebounded yesterday after three straight losing sessions as institutional investors did some end-of-the-quarter buying to dress up their portfolios. Technology stocks, hardest hit in last week's big drop, showed the biggest gains.
Upbeat news about consumer spending and an encouraging report on semiconductor sales sent some consumer cyclical stocks higher, but otherwise had little effect on trading, analysts said.
"It is certainly nothing to knock the market off its heels," said Chris Johnson, manager of quantitative analysis at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.
The tech-focused Nasdaq composite index closed up 32.49, or 1.8 percent, at 1,824.56. The gain followed last week's drop of 6 percent, its worst week since the week ended April 26, 2002, when it plunged 7.4 percent.
The market's other gauges also rose after suffering their biggest weekly losses in months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 67.16, or 0.7 percent, to 9,380.24, having lost 3.4 percent last week, its worst weekly loss in six months, or since March 28, when it gave back 4.4 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 9.73, or 1 percent, to 1006.58, having shed 3.8 percent last week. The S&P hadn't had a worse week in eight months, or since Jan. 24 when it lost 4.5 percent.
The Russell 2000 index rose 7.42, or 1.5 percent, to 492.71.
Advancing issues beat decliners 5 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.67 billion shares, down from 1.80 billion on Friday.
The NYSE composite index gained 41.21, or 0.7 percent, to 5,685.35. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.66, or 0.3 percent, 988.93.
The two-year Treasury note slipped 2/32 to 100 2/32, with its yield rising 4 basis points to 1.59 percent. The 10-year note fell 1932 to 101 1332, with its yield rising 7 basis points to 4.08 percent.
Wall Street was poised to end a second straight quarter higher, a feat not seen since the fourth quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
Analysts attributed the gains in large part to the end-of-quarter practice called window dressing, in which professional fund managers buy up shares of stocks to make their portfolios look better in quarterly statements to shareholders.
"I think the window dressing is really taking hold today," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.
Wall Street had encouraging economic news from the Commerce Department, which said consumers increased their spending by a strong 0.8 percent in August. The rise, attributable to consumers having extra cash in their wallets from tax cuts, met economists' expectations.
Investors keep close tabs on consumer spending, because it accounts for two-thirds of the economy.
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