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Dow nervously tops 9,000
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April 3, 1998: 10:25 a.m. ET
Stocks bounce up, then down, before a rally takes index steadily over 9,000
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - It was a victory, but a nervous one for Wall Street early Friday as the Dow industrials scrambled to get past the 9,000 milestone, but once there, failed to solidify their position and quickly retreated, only to charge higher again a few minutes later.
A rallying bond market and news that the economy let some steam out in March as the unemployment rate inched up to 4.7 percent from 4.6 percent the month before, failed to inspire cautious market bulls and the passage of the 9,000 benchmark seemed to attract more stock sellers than buyers. But the market soon hit a bottom, from which there was only one way to go - up.
Shortly after 10 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was 21.68 points higher at 9,008.32, sailing past 9,000 once again, after dropping as low as 8,986.64.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues led declines 1,352 to 989 on trading volume of 102 million shares.
Other market indicators also started the day by creeping up to new record highs, then quickly retreating before rising again. The Nasdaq Composite traded 2 points higher at 1,854.96 and the S&P 500 gained 1.02 to 1,121.03 -- both in record territory.
Bonds rallied, buoyed by news that the economy lost 36,000 non-farm payroll jobs in March after creating 252,000 new jobs in February. The decline was the first since 62,000 jobs were lost in January 1996.
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 24/32 of a point in price, lowering the yield to 5.79 percent.
The dollar dipped slightly after the unexpectedly weak jobs report, with the prospect of steady or lower interest rates hurting the currency. The dollar benefits from a higher interest rate environment, because higher rates increase the value of assets denominated in U.S. dollars.
Profit warnings continue to pour
In stocks, investors once again could not get away from a new slew of profit warnings, with several new companies telling the market about a business slowdown in the latest quarter.
Among the leading losers: shares of Imnet Systems (IMNT) tumbled 6-9/16, or more than 29 percent, to 15-7/8 after the company said order delays from customers would cause fiscal third-quarter earnings to fall short of expectations. Imnet prepares electronic information and document managing systems for the health-care industry.
But shares of GTE Corp. (GTE), the nation's third-largest local phone company, rose 3-5/16 to 63-3/4 on news telecom company plans to sell non-strategic or underperforming assets and cut annual costs. GTE also said that because of these plans, it would take a charge of $802 million in the first quarter which would cut into earnings for the entire year. 
--by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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