Blue Chips Propel Dow Past 4,400

Blue chip stocks rose to record levels for the third consecutive session, but the broad market turned lower as bond prices softened, pushing interest rates higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished 13.84 higher at 4,404.62, passing 4,400 and breaking its record high set just the day before.

Stocks rose early in the session, as bonds continued Tuesday’s spectacular rally. Bonds lost steam in late morning and dropped into negative territory, pushing broad stocks lower.

Last-minute buying allowed blue chips to rally late in the day, but the broader stock market was left behind.

“This market’s been kind of sloppy all day,” Dick McCabe, a market analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., said late in the session. “Maybe the stock market is beginning to consolidate its gains a little bit.”

Advancers edged out decliners by about 6 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was moderately heavy at 371.64 million shares as of 4 p.m., up from 361.31 million on Tuesday.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday:

NYSE

Advanced Micro Devices rose 1 1/8 to 37.

Micron Technology fell 5/8 to 82.

Texas Instruments fell 1 1/8 to 111 3/4.

Semiconductor stocks were mixed, even after the Semiconductor Industry Association released favorable order statistics. The association said its preliminary adjusted book-to-bill ratio was 1.18 in April, well above forecasts and up from 1.15 in March.

Whirlpool rose 2 1/2 to 52 1/2.

The stock dropped 4 points on Tuesday after the appliance maker said it would be difficult to top last year’s second-quarter earnings of $1.10 per share.

Ford Motor rose 1 1/4 to 28 3/8.

General Motors rose 2 1/4 to 46.

Chrysler rose 1 5/8 to 43 1/2.

Morgan Stanley upgraded auto stocks to “overweight” from ‘market weight.” Also, auto stocks have been rising this week, as falling interest rates made investors more optimistic about future auto sales.

NASDAQ

Nordstrom fell 2 7-16 to 36 1/8.

The department-store company said Tuesday that its first-quarter net income fell to 34 cents per share. That compares with 39 cents a year ago and a mean estimate of 38 cents per share. April sales in stores open at least a year were up 0.4 percent.

AMEX

Cheyenne Software rose 1 3/8 to 14 1/8.

SoundView Financial commenced coverage of the issue with a “buy” rating.