Unpredictable Dow Soars 98.63 Points

Blasting past jitters of a week ago, the stock market surged into record territory Monday on rebounding investor optimism that the economy is growing slowly and inflation remains benign.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared 98.63 points, or 1.77 percent, to 5,683.60, shattering its previous record of 5,642.42 set on March 5 and tied on March 7.

After last week’s cumulative gain of 114 points, the Monday rally more than erased its 171-point drop on March 8.

Advancing issues led decliners by 7 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Big Board volume was moderately heavy, with a revised 436.64 million shares trading as of 4 p.m.

The performance was even more remarkable because it was unprovoked by new economic data.

“It’s the biggest mystery since the murder on the Orient Express,” said Larry Wachtel, a market analyst at Prudential Securities.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily:

NYSE

Philip Morris fell 4-1/4 to 91-1/8.

RJR Nabisco fell 2-1/4 to 31-1/8.

Brooke Group fell 5-3/8 to 8-3/4.

Loews fell 5-1/8 to 78-5/8.

Tobacco stocks fell in reaction to a variety of news reports about evidence that Philip Morris knew nicotine’s druglike effect and carefully controlled nicotine levels in cigarettes.

Walt Disney Co. fell 2-1/4 to 67.

Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and lowered its earnings estimate for the current fiscal year to $2.35 a share from $2.55. In the year ended Sept. 30, Disney earned $2.60.

NASDAQ

Intel rose 5/8 to 59-1/2.

The semiconductor maker has decided to discontinue its older Paragon line of the machines and will focus on supercomputers based on the newer Pentium Pro, according to company spokesman Howard High.

Iomega Corp. rose 4-1/8 to 23-3/4.

Hambrecht & Quist Inc. initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating, saying the removable storage market is poised for strong growth, and that Iomega is building the infrastructure exploit the market growth.

Microsoft Corp. rose 2-7/8 to 105-1/4.

The software maker unveiled its Open Financial Connectivity product, which will allow users to link up with Microsoft’s Money home-banking program through the Internet.

AMEX

U.S. Bioscience Inc. rose 7/16 to 7-1/16.

The Food and Drug Administration has allowed the company to market its Ethyol drug to patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The drug reduces kidney damage associated with chemotherapy. The company was cleared in December to market the drug to patients with advanced ovarian cancer.