Posted at 11:48 a.m., Friday, October 26, 2001
Dow closer to pre-terrorist attack level
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Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wall Street extended its rally today, with stocks moving higher even as investors showed some wariness about making big commitments. Blue chips rose sharply while the rest of the market was up only modestly.
The advance put the Dow Jones industrials less than 30 points below the level they held before the terrorist attacks.
Stocks fluctuated during the morning before holding in positive territory for most of the afternoon. The advance followed a late-session buying spree yesterday, but investors' focus on blue chips showed they prefer to remain cautious amid political and economic uncertainty.
The Dow rose 114.17 to 9,577.07, adding to a 117-point advance yesterday. The Dow is now 28 points below 9,605.51, its close of Sept. 10, the day before the attacks.
Broader stock indicators were narrowly higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.32 to 1,106.41 while the Nasdaq composite index was up 3.69 at 1,779.16. Both indexes have already surpassed their Sept. 10 closing levels.
With a weekend coming up and fears of terrorism continuing, it was clear that many investors thought twice about making further commitments to the market.
But the fact that yesterday's big gains were holding was likely to pull some fence-sitters back into the market, said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Legg Mason of Baltimore.
"The advance we saw yesterday midday was really very impressive and we're holding it and even building on it a little bit, and if we can hold it to the end of the week, that once again shows resiliency," he said.
Investors tolerated a Commerce Department report that sales of new homes fell in September to their lowest level in a year. The drop was expected as uneasiness about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks made already cautious consumers shy away from big-ticket purchases.
That report was balanced by another from the University of Michigan, showing consumer sentiment inched up in October to 82.7 from 81.8 in September.
Gainers included Worldcom, which posted lower third-quarter earnings, but still met analysts expectations. It rose $1.19 to $13.50.
Ericcson was up 15 cents to $4.50, following an after-hours announcement yesterday that its chairman will not return. Baker Hughes was up $1.55 to $36.57 after reporting earnings that beat analysts' expectations.
Lockheed Martin was up 81 cents to $49.71, with some investors betting it will benefit from increased defense spending, and could be chosen by the Pentagon to build its next-generation fighter jet. Rival bidder Boeing's stock also rose, up $1.02 to $36.92.
But earnings reports continued to drag down other companies. Losers today included JDS Uniphase, down $1.06 to to $8.90, after reporting a steep quarterly loss yesterday.
Enron was down 81 cents to $15.54, after it said it had drawn down $3 billion from credit lines.
The Russell 2000 index, which measures the performance of smaller company stocks, was up 2.12 at 438.08.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 5-to-4 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 942.3 million shares, down from yesterday's 1.02 billion.
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