Blue-chips resume their rise
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NEW YORK, Mar 06, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Blue-chip stocks were sharply higher in fairly active trading at midday Wednesday, lifted by a favorable reading on the economy while prices eased on the Nasdaq Stock Market from weakness in technology issues.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average, which lost 153.41 points Tuesday, was ahead 89.00 points, or 0.85 percent, to 10,522.40. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, which added 6.97 points in the previous session, was down 3.58 points to 1,862.71.
The broader New York Stock Exchange composite index was ahead 4.97 to 599.58 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index was ahead 8.35 to 1,154.49.
The American Stock Exchange composite index was down 6.90 points to 870.97 while the Russell 2000 Index was ahead 1.41 to 489.00.
Big Board volume declined to an estimated 605.50 million shares from 655.60 million shares changing hands during the same period Tuesday.
Analysts said blue chips headed higher after the Commerce Department said orders to U.S. factories rose in January, the most recent data to indicate the once struggling manufacturing sector is rebounding.
Factory orders rose 1.6 percent to $325.81 billion, the government said after rising a revised 0.7 percent in December. December factory orders were originally reported as rising by 1.2 percent. |
