Dow Up 99, 2 Indexes Hit Highs
NEW YORK, Dec. 5-Stocks rallied today, setting records forthe first time in nearly two months, as a surprisingly strong economic report eased worries about weak profits instead of spurring the usual attack of inflation jitters.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 98,97 to 8149.13,just llOpoints shy of its alltime best dose of 8259.31 on Aug. 6. But the highlight of the rally was the return to record levels by the Standard & Poor's 509stock index and the New York Stock Exchange composite index. The two broad-market measures closed at record highs for the first time since Oct 7, a few weeks before Wall Street succumbed to a global sell-off caused by an economic crisis in Asia.</br></br>For the week, the Dow gained 326 points, or more than 4 percent giving it a 26 percent gain for 1997 with less than a month to go. The S&P 500 and the NYSE composite are both up more than 30 percent this year.</br></br>Click on this symbol on The Washington Post's Internet site at http://www. washingtonpost.com to find: ment said the nationÛªs unemployment rate sank to a 24-year low of 4.6 percent in November as employers added 404,000 workers to their payrolls, nearly double what analysts had expected.</br></br>The report did, in feet, unnerve the inflation-sensitive bond market, but stock investors were heartened by the notion that an economy strong enough to create so many jobs might also be