Wall Street blasted well into record territory Thursday, boosted by a rally among oil stocks and some more upbeat economic stats.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 142.09 points to 9914.93 in mid-afternoon trading, blowing right by the 9800 and 9900 marks for the first time and setting its sights squarely on 10,000.
The Wired Index was 7.17 higher at 623.49, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 21.83 to 2427.84. The S&P 500 was up 15.88 at 1302.72.
Dow components Chevron (CHV) and Exxon (XON) gained ground as representatives of major oil-producing nations gathered in Amsterdam to discuss reducing output to cope with an oversupply of fuel on world markets. The matter will be taken up as well when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets later this month.
The Dow received an additional boost from Coca-Cola (KO), which advanced US$3.63 to $66.38 as Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities upgraded the company's stock to "buy" from "market perform." Analyst Skip Carpenter said Coke can be expected to swipe some worldwide market share from rival PepsiCo this year, and should see its share price increase to $79 within 12 months.
The broader market found heart in word from the US Commerce Department that retail sales were up 0.9 percent last month to $236.5 billion, and the Labor Department reporting that first-time claims for unemployment checks remained under 300,000 for the sixth straight week.
"There's a lot of liquidity out there," said Rao Chalasani, chief investment strategist at Everen Securities. "It's finding its way back into financial markets."
But what about all that carping just a few weeks back about frighteningly high stock valuations? Aren't investors feeling spooked as share prices reach unprecedented heights?
"When the market is down, people have many concerns," Chalasani replied. "When the market is up, people forget those concerns. Now the market is up."
Ah, well, that explains it.
Tech stocks were the market's laggards as profit warnings and weaker earnings weighed on the sector. Communications services provider Brightpoint (CELL) set the tone, plunging 54 percent to $5 after saying it expects first-quarter and full-year revenue to come in well below estimates. The firm now says it will merely break even in the present quarter. Analysts had been looking for profit of 22 cents a share.
For its part, computer distributor Ingram Micro (IM) fell 81 cents to $17.81 as it said first-quarter profit probably won't top 30 cents a share. The Street had been anticipating earnings of 42 cents. Ingram also said it will cut its worldwide workforce by about 1,400 as part of restructuring moves.
But it wasn't all gloom and doom on the tech side of the fence. 3Com (COMS) climbed $1.88 to $26.50 on news it will join forces with Microsoft to market a new breed of networking products aimed at accelerating Web access in homes. Microsoft (MSFT) was $2.63 higher at $164.
And Intel (INTC) rose $1.69 to $118.56 after BancBoston Robertson Stephens reiterated a "strong buy" rating for the chipmaker's stock. Analyst Daniel Niles said recent speculation that Intel would issue a profit warning was "pretty unfounded," and that sales appear to be improving this month.
So how are the day traders passing their time? They're crawling all over a software developer called Infosys Technologies (INFY), which surged 38 percent to $47 after making its debut as the first Indian company to list on a US exchange. Infosys had profit of 41 cents a share in fiscal 1998, compared with income of 23 cents a year earlier.
