Dow Edges Up As Nasdaq Index Hits Record
The Dow Jones industrial average tiptoed forward, holding above the celebrated 8,000 mark Thursday as the Nasdaq composite index returned to record levels.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 12.03 to 8,027.53 in mild trading. The blue-chip barometer remains up more than 24 percent in 1997, but has done little to threaten its Aug. 6 peak of 8,259.31.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 11 to 8 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 474.76 million shares as of 4 p.m., up from 597.89 million in the previous session. With many traders abandoning Wall Street for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, volume was well below Wednesday’s level.
Investors at first sold off following the release of manufacturing and weekly unemployment reports, the only significant data out Thursday, then shrugged them off in anticipation of reports on leading economic indicators and employment for September, both due today.
“(Thursday’s) reports were a hiccup at first for the market, and then were forgotten,” said Brian Belski, technical analyst at Dain Bosworth in Minneapolis.
Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday:
NYSE
Cigna Corp., down 8-1/4 at 172.
The insurer said third-quarter earnings will fall below Wall Street expectations. Cigna blamed higher-than-expected medical delivery costs and an unexpectedly high general medical cost trend.
Peterson Co.s, up 2-3/4 from initial offering price at 20-1/4.
The publisher of special interest magazines sold 7 million shares in its initial public stock offering, starting at 17 per share.
Advanced Micro Devices, up 1-13/16 at 28-13/16.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., semiconductor maker said production difficulties will cause a larger-than-expected quarterly loss. The chip maker is having trouble making its K6 microprocessor, the chip it hopes will steal some of the lucrative personal computer business away from Intel Corp.
St. Joe Corp., down 9-1/2 at 109-1/2.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company agreed to buy real estate developer Arvida Co. Boca Raton-based Arvida is a major community developer primarily in Florida, while St. Joe’s extensive land holdings are located primarily in North Florida.
NASDAQ
Sheridan Energy Inc., up 3-13/16 at 6-5/16.
The Houston-based energy company said it knows of the unusual stock activity but can’t explain the increase in price.
Orcad Inc., down 5-7/16 at 9-5/16.
The Beaverton, Ore., desktop electronic design software company said earnings would fall below analysts’ expectations. The news prompted analysts to downgrade its stock.