Wall Street held on to its gains Friday, rising modestly even as investors pondered what direction to take after the surge in stock prices this week. The Dow Jones industrials had their first close above their levels of Sept. 11.
"It's encouraging to see stocks acting this way. It's very quiet here, but this isn't anything to worry about," said Christopher Wolfe, equity market strategist at JP Morgan Private Bank.
The Dow closed up 20.48, or 0.2 percent, at 9,608.00 -- just above its close of 9,605.51 on Sept. 10, the day before the terror attacks. The index has now recouped all of the 1,369 points it lost in the ensuing selloff.
Broader stock indicators advanced marginally. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.77, or nearly 0.2 percent, at 1,120.31, while the NASDAQ composite index gained 0.72, or 0.04 percent, to 1,828.49. Both indexes surpassed pre-attack levels last month.
"This is a market that's recognizing that it's come a long way in a relatively short period of time,'' said Charles Crane, strategist for Victory SBSF Capital Management.
Noting that seven weeks ago the market hit its lows following the terrorist attacks, Crane said, "If you look at the major benchmarks, the NASDAQ's up about 28 percent, the S&P is up nearly 16 percent. Those are impressive numbers."
Trading Friday appeared company-specific. Boeing lost US$1.72 to US$33.18 on news that Scandinavian airline SAS had grounded 43 Boeing planes because of mechanical concerns.
Hewlett-Packard maintained its advance from earlier this week on news suggesting its plans to acquire Compaq were in jeopardy. H-P rose US$0.64 to US$18.99, while Compaq lost US$0.26 to US$7.73.
* The NASDAQ composite index gained 0.72, or 0.04 percent, to 1,828.49.
* The Dow closed up 20.48, or 0.2 percent, at 9,608.00.
* The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.77, or nearly 0.2 percent, at 1,120.31
Energy stocks rose on reports that OPEC members might agree to curtail supply in efforts to reverse the recent slide in oil prices. ExxonMobil rose US$0.75 to US$40.25.
The calm session was an uneventful end to a strong week that saw the Dow and S&P rise 3 percent, while the NASDAQ gained 4.7 percent.
Analysts attributed much of the advance to momentum from the rallies Monday and Tuesday, which preceded and followed the Federal Reserve's 10th interest rate cut this year. The cuts have also helped stabilize a market in which good earnings and economic data remain scarce. Lower interest rates mean money market and other non-equity accounts pay smaller returns -- giving investors a greater incentive to put money into the stock market.
"There still is a certain amount of skittishness out there, but we have seen some meager buying come in," said Bryan Piskorowski, market commentator at Prudential Securities.
Still, stocks have been a hard sell in an environment in which most investors have been burned by betting that the market's worst days are behind.
Analysts say that right now, investors are hesitant to buy aggressively because economic data remains weak, particularly employment statistics that show job losses growing. As a result, some people have taken profits after big rallies rather than risk losing them should stocks fall again.
Advancing and declining issues traded nearly evenly on the New York Stock Exchange.
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