Stocks Surge To New Highs On Rate Hopes --- Industrials Rise to 1462.27; Other Indexes Also Soar; Big Board Volume Swells
Stock prices surged to new highs, powered by expectations of lower interest rates and investors' fears of being left behind by the bull market.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 23.05 points to 1462.27, surpassing the previous record, set Monday. Other widely watched market barometers established records, too.</br></br>Advancing stocks led declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange by more than three to one. Trading volume on the Big Board swelled to 150.3 million shares.</br></br>The advance surprised Wall Street analysts and traders. Many professionals had expected that a small decline -- which they call a "correction" -- or a period of lackluster trading would precede further major gains in the market.</br></br>"People got concerned that they would miss the market," said William LeFevre, market strategist at Purcell, Graham & Co. "Each day, the market went up without a correction. A lot of people couldn't wait any longer, and they jumped in."