Implosion feared for Wall Street

NEW YORK – It was impossible to escape the comparisons with 2000 on Wall Street this past week.

Not only did the Standard & Poor’s 500 index pass 1,500, a level the market has not seen since the dot-com boom, but the Dow Jones industrial average also ratcheted higher. Rising stock prices – which come amid a slowing economy – have some on Wall Street wondering if investors are making the same mistakes they made during the high-tech bubble.

Market watchers believe stocks have more juice in them, but not like the late 1990s, when investors snapped up shares as if there was no end in sight to the big rally. This time around, Wall Street is taking a more measured approach – and showing signs that a long-awaited, and perhaps needed, correction is beginning to form.

“Pullbacks are healthy and gets rid of the froth in the market,” said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist for the Hartford.

With stocks having risen steadily since recovering from a late-February plunge, many analysts believe Wall Street is overdue for a correction. But, institutional investors and hedge funds show no signs of complying – sending stocks up on good news or bad. The latest example came Friday after a government report showed disappointing job growth in April, and major indexes still finished higher.