Late Rally Catapults Dow To Another Record

Stocks staged a strong rally late Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its eighth record high in nine sessions.

The gains also included new highs in three broader market indexes and came despite jitters over the economy that sent investors seeking consumer stalwarts and selling economically sensitive shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 32.51 points higher to close at 5,492.12.

Stocks meandered, mostly in positive territory, for much of Wednesday’s session, held down by a declining bond market.

Bond prices fell as the market absorbed new supply, an auction of $14 billion of 10-year government notes Wednesday and the scheduled sale of $30 billion of 30-year Treasury bonds today. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 11/32 point to yield 6.15 percent.

But stocks shook off the doldrums late in the session, with the Dow industrials making nearly all of the day’s gains in the final 45 minutes of trading.

Advancing issues edged out decliners on the NYSE, where volume was 455.32 million shares as of 4 p.m., heavy but still down from Tuesday’s pace.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Wednesday:

NYSE

WMX Technologies fell 5/8 to 28-1/4.

The stock dropped 1-1/8 Tuesday after the waste-management company reported fourth-quarter operating net of 46 cents a share, compared with 43 cents a year ago. The results fell a penny short of analysts’ estimates. NatWest Securities down-graded the stock.

Sprint Corp. rose 1-1/2 to 43-7/8.

The stock fell 3/4 Tuesday after the long-distance telephone company said it lost $343 million in the fourth quarter because of a one-time charge taken to change accounting practices. The loss amounted to 98 cents per share, compared with a profit of $213.6 million, or 61 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Wheat First Butcher Singer upgraded the stock to aggressive buy from outperform.

Cardinal Health Inc. fell 2-1/2 to 56-7/8.

Cardinal Health and Pyxis Corp. signed a definitive agreement for a stock-swap merger valued at about $920 million at yesterday’s closing price. Pyxis shares were up 6-3/8 in Nasdaq trading.

NASDAQ

U.S. Office Products trading at 26-1/4, up 2-1/2 from original price.

An offering of 6 million common shares of U.S. Office Products Co. was priced at $23.25 each. The size of the offering was increased from the originally planned 5 million shares.

Pyxis rose 6-3/8 to 22-1/8.

Cardinal Health and Pyxis signed a definitive agreement for a stock-swap merger valued at about $920 million at yesterday’s closing price.