To: MoneyMade who wrote (102 ) 11/23/1998 4:14:00 PM From: MoneyMade Respond to of 15987
10,000 Dow??? (eBay up 46 pts.) Dow At New Record High By Jennifer Shaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks powered ahead Monday, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to a new record high as a wave of mergers brought big gains in the financial and Internet sectors. Near the closing bell the Dow was up 191.81 points at 9,350.36, above its July 17 record close of 9,337.97. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index jumped 48.32 points at 1,976.53. ''How high is up?'' asked Doug Myers, vice president of equity trading at Interstate/Johnson Lane. ''People see the fantastic gains made in the market and there's a sense of, 'Oh, I've got to get in there.''' The big movers on the NYSE included America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), which rose 4-3/8 to 89-1/2 on news that it was negotiating to buy Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news) Netscape rose 2-13/16 to 42. Also, Bankers Trust Corp. was up 8 at 85-7/8 on news that Deutsche Bank AG was in talks to buy the U.S. bank, which would form the world's largest financial services firm, based on assets. Among leaders in the Dow index, Citigroup was up 2-3/8 at 47-1/2 and American Express added 4-1/8 to 108-11/16. International Business Machines was up 4-3/8 at 164. Analysts said a supply-demand phenomenon was taking hold of the stock market. ''The supply of stocks goes down with mergers,'' said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of First Albany Corp. ''It sets in motion the dynamic of the rising demand... and the declining supply of stocks.'' Myers agreed: ''When you have a merger it means you have one stock less,'' he said. Johnson said the stock market rally was likely to continue. ''There are going to be small financial shocks, and occasionally there will be a setback, but generally speaking this is a positive market because of the strong cash flow to mutual funds and declining supply as a result of supply shrinkage,'' he said. In the long run, aging baby boomers will fuel the market, Johnson said. ''Demographics are powerful. We have more and more people entering the 45-to-65 age bracket, and those people are needing to build a nest egg. We've got 9.3 million individuals joining that bracket by 2005.'' Among big gains in the Internet sector, Amazon.com surged 19-13/16 to 200-1/2, extending last week's stunning rise, which followed news of a planned 3-for-1 stock split. Yahoo! Inc., considered the bellwether of the group, was up 8-5/16 at 199-5/16. Tyco International agreed to acquire AMP Inc. (NYSE:AMP - news) for $11.3 billion, giving AMP a ''white knight'' nearly four months after AlliedSignal Inc. (NYSE:ALD - news) launched a hostile $10 billion bid for the company. AMP rose 2-7/16 to 47-9/16, while Tyco fell 2-7/16 to 62-5/8. Merger mania hit the energy industry as well. Sunday, Duke Energy said it had agreed to buy Union Pacific Resources Group Inc.'s natural gas operations for $1.35 billion. Duke was down 9/16 at 63 while Union Pacific rose 1/4 to 13-1/2. American Electric Power Co. agreed to buy Citipower from Entergy Corp. (NYSE:ETR - news) AEP fell 1/4 to 48-5/8 and Entergy rose 7/16 to 29-3/4. UNUM Corp. (NYSE:UND - news) and Provident Cos. Inc. said they plan to combine their operations into UNUMProvident, a disability insurer with market capitalization of about $11 billion. UNUM added 4-7/8 to 53 while Provident added 4-1/8 to 37-1/2.