The Dow Jones industrial average shot to its fifth consecutive record high Friday as the bulls remained firmly in control on Wall Street.
“Keep it going!” exclaimed Rao Chalasani, stock market analyst at Everen Securities Inc., a Chicago-based brokerage firm, as the blue-chip barometer topped 8900 for the first time.
The rally was led by blue-chip stocks, including those of major oil companies boosted by talk that the oil-producing nations will cut output to raise prices. Bank stocks extended their week-long upswing, helped by low interest rates and speculation of more big mergers in the offing.
The 30-stock Dow industrial average zoomed 103.38 points, or nearly 1.2 percent, to 8906.43, bringing its gain for the week to 304 points.
The blue-chip indicator, having risen eight straight weeks, is up nearly 13 percent for the year. It cracked three century marks this week alone.
The Dow has now risen in seven of the last nine sessions, its latest string of gains broken by a 73-point drop last Thursday the 12th and Friday the 13th.
In pushing ahead to uncharted ground, the market averages ignored a so-called triple witching day, when stock options, index options and index futures expire on the same day. In the past, that event has frequently created volatility in the markets.
“It went right through the witching period, which is unusual,” said Robert Stovall, president of Stovall/21st Advisors, a New York investment firm. “But all the old rules seem to have gone by the board.”
Volume ballooned to 709.76 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, up from 505.70 million Thursday. Gainers outpaced losers by about 4-3 on the Big Board.
No major economic report was issued Friday, but investors focused on data from earlier in the week that showed the U.S. economy continuing to grow at a strong pace without inflationary pressures despite dire warnings about the Asian financial crisis.
“All the inflation and economic numbers say the economy is in good shape,” Chalasani said. “Interest rates are holding steady and the bond market is benign. As long as it doesn’t go down, it’s a help to the stock market.”
Bond prices rose, pushing yields to the lowest levels since Monday amid optimism that inflation won’t accelerate soon. The yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond slipped to 5.88 percent from 5.89 percent late Thursday.
Stovall said the stock market rally was being fueled by “a flood of money from the mutual funds. And there has to be a lot of money from overseas seeking quality investments.”
Among broad market indicators, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 9.42, or nearly 0.9 percent, to a record 1099.16.
But not all barometers joined Friday’s bull run. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.82, or 0.6 percent, to 1789.16, as the computer-related shares that dominate the index declined on indications that Asia’s slowdown is hurting sales.
For the full week, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 3.5 percent and the S&P 500 rose 2.9 percent. The Nasdaq index added 1 percent despite Friday’s setback.
Stovall and many other analysts predicted the stock rally would continue next week as managers of mutual and pension funds adjust their portfolios before the end of the first quarter.
Among the biggest gainers Friday were tobacco stocks, following an Indiana jury’s decision that the industry was not liable in the cancer death of a nurse exposed to secondhand smoke. Philip Morris gained $1.69, to $43.06, and Loews rose $3.19, to $107.56.
Gainers in energy stocks included Chevron, which rose $3.06, to $86.87, the Dow’s biggest gainer. Exxon advanced $2.31, to $67.12, and Amoco added $1, to $86.62.
The weak link was technology stocks, which were battered as investors took profits on the market’s recent rise. Dallas Semiconductor said Asia’s recent financial woes depressed its sales and would result in earnings below analysts’ estimates. Intel fell $1.56, to $75.75; Dell Computer dropped $2.31, to $62.44; and Sun Microsystems shed $2.19, to $42.94.
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