Tech Stocks Again Spark Market Rise
Tech-stock enthusiasm overcame interest-rate worries yet again, pushing the Nasdaq Composite Index to a fifth consecutive record close and a second day above 3000.</br></br>Nervousness ahead of today's announcement of closely watched October employment data produced some late-day selling, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average still closed up 30.58 points, or 0.29%, at 10639.64. The Nasdaq composite, which closed above 3000 for the first time Wednesday, surged 27.44, or 0.91%, to 3055.95. Bonds advanced and the dollar was mixed.</br></br>"People are shifting from worries about interest rates to optimism about technology investment," said Robert Gasser, head of U.S. stock trading at J.P. Morgan.</br></br>Fading worries about year-2000 computer-clock problems help to explain the strength of the Nasdaq composite, which is dominated by technology stocks such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems.</br></br>Bond investors until recently feared the Fed was falling behind in combating inflation and would be forced to raise shortterm interest-rate targets by half a percentage point at its Nov. 16 policy meeting, said Scott Graham, chief government bond trader at Prudential Securities.