Late Rebound Catapults Dow To Record High

Blue-chip stocks mounted a late rebound Tuesday, notching more record highs and leaving the Dow Jones industrial average just 250 points shy of the 9,000 mark.

The broad market was mixed, with smaller-company shares halting a string of new highs and technology issues sagging amid more signs of profit pressures in the computer industry.

The Dow wiped out an early 35-point loss before rising 31.14 to 8,749.99, the second straight record close for the blue-chip barometer.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 also turned higher over the final hour of trading, notching a record high for the fifth time in six sessions.

“A late-in-the day rebound is the best kind. It smacks of underlying confidence and buying potential,” said Eugene Peroni, director of technical research at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

There was little reaction to two new reports offering some mixed economic signals. The government said construction of new homes and apartments, propelled by low mortgage rates and good weather, jumped 6 percent in February to the highest level in more than a decade. Industrial production, however, was unchanged in February, the first month without an increase since October 1996.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 680.96 million shares, up sharply from Monday’s 546.83 million.

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

NYSE

H.F. Ahmanson & Co., up 12-3/8 at 77-7/8.

Seattle-based Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest thrift, agreed to buy rival Ahmanson for stock valued at about $80 a share, or $9.9 billion. Ahmanson, based in Irwindale, Calif., is the parent of Home Savings of America.

Inland Steel, up 4-3/4 at 28-1/8.

Ispat International, up 1-1/4 at 26.

Bethlehem Steel, up 7/8 at 13-3/16.

National Steel, up 1-7/8 at 18-11/16.

Geneva Steel, up 3/8 at 2-11/16.

Steel shares rose amid news that Netherlands-based Ispat agreed to pay $888.2 million in cash to acquire Chicago-based Inland, the nation’s sixth-largest steel maker.

NASDAQ

Ancor Communications, down 2-1/4 at 6-9/16.

Sun Microsystems has decided not to use Ancor as preferred supplier of Fibre Channel switches for Sun’s StorEdge family of products, which is under development.

Cannondale, down 4-1/16 at 16-3/4.

The maker of high-performance aluminum bicycles warned late Monday that its expects to post disappointing results for its third quarter ending March 28.