Dow Jumps 115 Points, Sets Record New High Reached Six Months After Market Began Steep Decline

The Dow Jones industrial average set its first record high in six months Tuesday, culminating a comeback from its worst one-day point loss in history.

Wall Street’s best-known indicator rose 115.09 to 8,295.61, topping its all-time best close of 8,259.31. That mark was set back on Aug. 6, one day before the stock market began a steep slide amid the first whiffs of Asia’s mounting financial troubles.

Broad-market indicators also rose sharply on Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the mostly widely followed benchmark for mutual funds, closing at a record high for the sixth time in nine sessions.

Tuesday’s record by the Dow follows a discouraging half-year that’s seen recovery after recovery fizzle, prompting fears that the most resilient bull market in history had finally run out of steam.

Over the past two weeks investors have shown more gumption thanks to recent signs of strength in the U.S. economy and company profits, not to mention a lack of worrisome developments among Wall Street’s leading concerns: the economic crisis in Asia, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and a potential military clash with Iraq.

“Very little is panicking them. People really don’t seem to care about Clinton and are staying calm about everything else,” James Glynn, a broker with Greer and Associates, said outside the New York Stock Exchange after Tuesday’s close.

The Clinton administration on Tuesday said what many in the market had concluded weeks ago: The U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand the worst of the Asian crisis.

Although Wall Street mounted a partial recovery by late summer, the situation in Asia continued to deteriorate, eventually triggering a global financial panic that climaxed with a record loss of 554 points by the Dow on Oct. 27.

The Dow continued to fall the next day, even dipping under 7,000, but suddenly reversed course as investors, seasoned by all the remarkable turnarounds of recent years, once again saw a chance to buy low.

However, the nagging uncertainty over Asia wouldn’t go away - and still hasn’t, according to many market experts - and less than a month ago, the Dow was near 7,500.

But worries about the impact the Asian crisis may have on corporate earnings were put to rest, at least temporarily, by a surprisingly robust stream of company profit reports for the final three months of 1997.

Technology companies, which have been pummeled repeatedly over their considerably large exposure to foreign markets, continued to lead the rally.

“Technology is leading this recovery in confidence because technology was really savaged by the worries about the Far East,” said A. Marshall Acuff Jr., equity strategist at Salomon Smith Barney.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: RECORD HIGHS The five highest closes of the Dow Jones industrial average: 1. 8,295.61, Feb. 10, 1998 2. 8,259.31, Aug. 6, 1997 3. 8,254.89, July 30, 1997 4. 8,222.61, July 31, 1997 5. 8,198.45, Aug. 4, 1997