Dow Surges 50.94, Closes Above 4,900 Level

A late burst of computer-driven buying sent the Dow Jones industrials to record heights Wednesday, despite a budget impasse in Washington and failure by the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

The Dow average shot up 50.94 to 4,922.75, closing above 4,900 for the first time. The Dow pushed through Monday’s record closing high of 4,872.90 and marked a record for the fifth time in six sessions and the 58th time this year. It made nearly all of the day’s 1.05 percent gains in the final hour of trading.

So far in 1995, the Dow industrials have surged more than 28 percent.

On the Big Board, volume was moderately heavy at 373.06 million shares, compared with 353.7 million Tuesday. Advancing issues led decliners by 9 to 8.

Larry Wachtel, Prudential Securities’ market analyst, said Chicago futures traders got nervous as the market failed to fall on several pieces of uninspiring or outright bad news.

“The shorts in the futures pits looked over a panopoly of (bad) conditions, … and they just got squeezed,” Wachtel said. Not wishing to end the session with open short positions, short-sellers sprang late in the day to buy themselves out, pushing the blue-chip index sharply higher.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Wednesday:

NYSE

USAir Group Inc. fell 1 to 10-5/8.

United Airlines declined to pursue a merger with USAir after studying the issue for a month. The stock extended a 3-3/4-point drop on Tuesday.

Boeing rose 2-1/2 to 74.

The aircraft maker won a crucial $12.7 billion order from Singapore Airlines Ltd. for as many as 77 of its big two-engine 777 airliners, dealing a strong blow to rival Airbus Industrie of Europe.

AT&T rose 1-1/4 to 64-1/2.

The telecommunications giant is offering buyouts to almost 78,000 managers - about half its supervisory staff - as it plans to break up into three companies, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

NASDAQ

Gandalf Technology rose 2-1/4 to 12-5/8.

The stock rose for the second day after Hambrecht & Quist started coverage with a “buy” rating.

AMEX

Ivax rose 1/8 to 24-3/4.

Ivax Corp. and Hafslund Nycomed AS of Norway call off their planned merger because of shareholder opposition and will pursue a strategic alliance instead. Wall Street never warmed to the idea of merging Ivax, the world’s largest generic drug company, with the biggest maker of chemical dyes that help doctors read X-rays.