Burst of Buying Moves Market To New Highs: News Background
Many analyists found business news encouraging, but there was little to account for the frenzied burst of buying that hit both the New York and American Stock Exchanges soon after the opening. The NYSE ticker was two minutes behind floor transactions within minutes after the opening, while the Amex ticker dropped more than half an hour behind the floor pace midway through the day.</br></br>Blue chips were in strong demand. A 6V4-point jump in Du Pont, which finished at 177, a 2\Ûªs-point climb in General Motors, to 8914, and a 2våÇ-addition to United Aircraft, which finished at 897s, helped push the Dow Jones industrial average ahead 8.73 points to 943.08. At its best, the Dow was up more than ten points shortly before the close.</br></br>Not all the major indicators were so heavily on the upside. Despite the early push, trading volume for the day fell below FridayÛªs level. In all. 10.91 million shares crossed the tape, compared with 11.16 million in the previous session.</br></br>The news background included word that auto sales in the middle ten days of September were better than in the model-introduction period last year. Continued problems with the income tax surcharge proposal were also credited with helping the market higher.</br></br>Once again, however, the marketÛªs high spirits did not extend to many of the glamor issues. IBM jumped ID1.-* points to 553ÛÓand a new high at 55712ÛÓafter American Telephone announced it is starting a giant computerization program. Teledyne jumped tils to 112-'s on a recommendation by an advisory service.