Busy Day Ends Dow’s Big Week

Blue chip stocks ended a volatile session Friday with modest gains on the second-busiest day ever on New York Stock Exchange, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite was held back by a decline in computer-related issues.

At close on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 10.76 at 6,484.39. The Dow shot up as much as 75 points shortly after the open, extending Thursday’s gain of 126 points.

It gave back almost all those gains before climbing higher a second time in late morning, then retreating again.

With its 179.43-point rebound this week, the blue-chip index has recovered more than its 2.6 percent loss since Dec. 6, when stocks tumbled after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questioned whether financial markets were in the grips of “irrational exuberance.”

As the week ended, the Dow was 63.40 points below its all-time closing high of 6,547.79 on Nov. 25.

On Friday, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 5 to 3 on the NYSE. Volume came to 654.34 million shares, including after-hour trading, second only to the record 682.98 million shares that changed hands in the turbulent July 16 session as the market began its climb back from a deep slide.

Traders and analysts attributed much of Friday’s price swings to the triple expiration of options and futures contracts, often a day when volume and volatility are high.

“The market’s on steroids because of triple witching,” said David Shulman, market strategist at Salomon Inc. But he cautioned that Greenspan “still laid down a marker, and you ignore that at your peril.”

Although the Fed left interest rates unchanged earlier this week, Thursday’s and Friday’s increases heighten the chances that the central bank will tighten early next year, Shulman asserted.

” It reduces the amount of freedom the Fed has with regard to monetary policy.”

Broad-market indexes were mostly higher, except the technology heavy Nasdaq composite, which fell 7.30 to 1,288.56 on a decline in computer shares. Even with that retreat Nasdaq was up 3.65 points for the week.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 3.11 to 748.87, the NYSE’s composite index rose 1.95 to 394.11, and the American Stock Exchange’s market value index added 3.48 to 582.01.

Stocks got no help from bonds, which marked time after big gains Thursday. Yields on 30-year Treasury issues edged up to 6.60 percent from 6.58 percent late Thursday, while prices fell. Bond prices and yields move in the opposite direction.

Bonds had gained early in the day, following through on Thursday’s gains and after the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of just 2.1 percent in the third quarter compared with 4.7 percent in the second quarter.

In overseas trading, The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100-share index in London ended at 4,077.6 points, up 26.3 points and topping its record of 4,068.4 set Nov. 26.