16th Record High For Nasdaq in 4 Weeks
The Nasdaq Stock Market sprinted to another record today as investors gave Internet retailers a boost at the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. But stocks overall delivered a mixed performance in light post-Thanksgiving trading.</br></br>Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Nasdaq composite index rose 27.31, to 3447.81, its 16th record close in four weeks. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 0.46, to 1416.62.</br></br>For the week, the Nasdaq rose 78.56 points, and is up 57 percent so far this year. The Dow dropped 14.98 for the week while the S&P 500 slipped 5.38.</br></br>"A tremendous pocket of strength in technology is pulling up the Nasdaq," said Richard McCabe, chief market analyst at Merrill Lynch. But he cautioned that, overall, declining stocks are outpacing advancing ones, which should raise a yellow flag of caution for investors.</br></br>Stock gains were held back by inflationary concerns spurred by a Commerce Department report today that Americans' personal income in October rose 1.3 percent, its biggest jump in more than five years, and had increased more than twice as fast as spending.