December 9, 2003

EVER UPWARDS:

Dow Briefly Passes 10,000 (HOPE YEN, 12/09/03, AP)

Wall Street reached one of the most significant milestones of its recovery from the bear market Tuesday, as the Dow Jones industrials crossed 10,000 for the first time in 18 months.

Stocks moved higher as upbeat investors picked up shares on bets the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low for some time.

The index of 30 blue chip stocks moved past the milestone shortly after trading began. It was the first time since May 31, 2002 that the Dow had been above 10,000, and marked a solid comeback from the five-year low of 7,286.27 the Dow fell to on Oct. 9, 2002.

A cheer went up on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to greet the Dow's achievement Tuesday, an expression of traders' relief that Wall Street has maintained its upward path. Last week, the Nasdaq composite index crossed 2,000 for the first time in nearly two years.


When the BBC does their nightly business wrap they do this obnoxious bit where they compare the price of a stock index fund today to what it was at the height of the tech bubble. But last night it was at 86% and one tends to doubt they'll keep mentioning it as it goes over 100%.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2003 2:33 PM
Comments

I guess that is why I never would watch the BBC, especially for "business" news. The only other time I have heard about people benchmarking market moves by pegging the base to the peak of the bubble was when our very own Harry "dissed" oj's assertion (obviously delusional) that a recovery has been under way by saying something like: "all I hear is people bemoaning all what their 401Ks had done since (precisely) March 2000."

Posted by: MG at December 9, 2003 2:47 PM

It didn't stay above 10K but with the economy improving its only a matter of time.
Frankly I'm surprised OJ didn't use a Bush =50 states headline over this story.

Posted by: AWW at December 9, 2003 3:10 PM

I would expect the BBC to swtich over to comparing NASDAQ's current level to its March 2000 highpoint once the other indexes get too close to their historic highs. The NASDAQ high isn't quite Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak in terms of projected longevity, but given the Clinton-Rubin tech bubble, it is a number that should be the last to fall as the economy improves.

Posted by: John at December 9, 2003 3:35 PM

All I know is that when people start talking about Maria Bartiromo's sweaters and hairstyles again, I'm going to start selling.

Posted by: jim hamlen at December 9, 2003 3:45 PM

MG - Keep in mind that Harry lives where all those Internet millionaires went to retire with their IPO winnings, and they were invested in tech and telecommunications stocks. It'll take them a long time to get back to March 2000.

Posted by: pj at December 9, 2003 5:53 PM

Hope Yen?

Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 10, 2003 5:45 AM
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