Tech stocks achieved their seventh straight monthly advance and blue chips their sixth Friday in an otherwise unremarkable pre-Labor Day session. Trading was extremely light.
After fluctuating in the early going, the market by the afternoon achieved moderate gains. The atmosphere was dull despite encouraging reports on consumer spending and the manufacturing sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 41.61, or 0.4 percent, at 9,415.82. For the week, the Dow gained 0.7 percent.
The NASDAQ composite index rose 10.27, or 0.6 percent, to 1,810.45. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 5.17, or 0.5 percent, to 1,008.01. For the week, the NASDAQ climbed 2.6 percent and the S&P gained 1.5 percent.
While trading was slow throughout August as traders were away on summer vacations, the major indexes easily ended the month higher.
The Dow and S&P posted their sixth straight winning month, while the NASDAQ had its seventh consecutive monthly gain.
It was the fourth straight winning week for the Dow and the third for the NASDAQ, S&P and Russell 200 index.
Market observers were encouraged that Wall Street was able to advance again, this time in the doldrums of August.
"This is potentially good news ... because if we now see the top of the range begin to act as support, we increase the chance of breaking out to the top side as traders return to the market," said Chris Johnson, manager of quantitative analysis at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.
There was a lot of economic news Friday, most of it positive.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan sought to reassure the market that the Fed aimed to guard against even remote risk of deflation.
In a speech, Greenspan defended the Fed's recent worries about deflation, which caused some volatility on Wall Street. He said it was sometimes necessary for the Fed in its interest rate policy to take out an insurance policy "against the emergence of especially adverse outcomes."
Before the market opened, the US Commerce Department reported consumers boosted their spending 0.8 percent in July as the latest tax cut left people with extra cash.
The increase in spending last month was the largest since March and followed a sizable 0.6 percent advance in June.
Last month's spending figure matched economists' expecta-tions. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the US economy.
Later, the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago said its index of area business activity rose to 58.9 in August on a seasonally adjusted basis from 55.9 in July. It was the fourth straight month that the business barometer signaled expansion. It is considered a harbinger of the Institute for Supply Management's index, to be released on Tuesday.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co rose US$0.50 to US$7.12 after the company announced Thursday it will eliminate about 500 jobs at its North American tire operations as part of continuing cost-cutting measures.
Starbucks Corp advanced US$0.75 to US$28.39 after reporting a 9 percent increase in same-store sales in August.
The last time the Dow had six or more straight monthly gains was an eight-month run from December 1994 through July 1995.
The S&P last had a six-month rally from January through June 1996, and the last time the tech-dominated NASDAQ had a streak as long was the 10-month period that ran from December 1994 through September 1995.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was light at 944.85 million shares, below 1.16 billion on Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, rose 1.62, or 0.3 percent, at 497.43. The Russell had a weekly gain of 2.5 percent.
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