Dow Struggles To Fifth Straight Record High

The Dow Jones industrials struggled to a record high for the fifth session in a row on Tuesday, even as investors booked profits in some high-flying sectors like technology and sent many broad indexes lower.

The Dow closed up 10.44 at 6,266.04, topping its previous high every trading day since last Wednesday. The blue-chip index slipped 16 points in early trading, recovered to show a gain of more than 20 points, then slipped back a second time before rallying into the close.

The Dow index is up 256 points, or by more than 4 percent, in the four weeks since closing above 6,000 for the first time on Oct. 14.

“It’s had a huge run,” said Peter Anderson, chief investment officer at IDS Advisory Group in Minneapolis. Investors are “simply cautious given what’s happened in the last several sessions.”

Big Board volume was robust at a revised 471.73 million shares, up from Monday’s quiet Veterans Day pace of 353.96 million.

But advancing issues led decliners by a weak 6-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, and, more concerning to some, the broad market showed signs of fatigue.

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

NYSE

Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. fell 1-7/8 to 2-3/4.

The struggling comic-book publisher reported a third-quarter loss of 12 cents a share, compared with a net gain of 19 cents a year ago, and said it expects a fourth-quarter loss of between 25 cents and 30 cents a share.

Home Depot Inc. fell 3-1/2 to 53-1/4.

Third-quarter profits at the home supplies retailer matched analysts’ expectations at 46 cents a share, up from 37 cents a year ago.

Westinghouse Electric Corp. rose 5/8 to 20-5/8.

The company is expected to spin off its $5 billion-a-year industrial operations, creating a new company distinct from its fast-growing broadcast empire, The Wall Street Journal reported.

NASDAQ

Intel fell 2-7/8 to 121.

Applied Materials rose 3/8 to 29.

Sun Microsystems fell 2 to 61-3/8.

Chips Technology fell 3/8 to 24.

Semiconductor stocks finished widely mixed after initially rising on a Semiconductor Industry Association report that orders for new chips jumped nearly 18 percent in October, lifting the book-to-bill ratio to 1.10 from a revised .98 in September.

Netscape Communications Corp. rose 1 to 54-3/4.

An offering of 5.6 million common shares of Netscape was priced at $53.75 each. The size of the offering was increased from the originally planned 5 million shares. Proceeds from the offering are expected to be used for general purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures.