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Dow sets record volume
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October 28, 1997: 3:37 p.m. ET
Stocks soar as Dow, Nasdaq post record gains, record volume
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Only a day after posting its biggest point loss ever, the Dow was back with flying colors Tuesday, posting record gains in record
volume.
Buoyed by the U.S. economy's strong fundamentals, investors shrugged off a global market meltdown and came back to Wall Street to buy stocks again.
At 3:18 p.m. the Dow Jones industrial average was up a record 344.05 points at 7,505.20, after losing 554 points Monday and trading as low as 6,975.49 earlier on Tuesday. The Dow hit its previous record point gain less than two months ago on September 2 when it gained 257.36.
The New York Stock Exchange saw record volume for the second day in a row as over 1 billion shares traded, up from Monday's 685 million. Advances outpaced declines 1,611 to 1,530.
Earlier, U.S. President Bill Clinton said the market's roller-coaster ride should not take investors' attention away from the country's solid economic performance.
"I know today a lot of Americans are focused on the stock market and it may disappointing, but I think it is neither prudent nor appropriate for any president to comment on the hour-by- hour movements of the market," Clinton said in remarks at a Chicago school.
"I'd like to ask all of us to remember that our economy is as strong and vibrant as it has been in a generation," the President added.
The Dow pulled broader markets up as well, with the Nasdaq gaining a record 61.77 to 1,596.86, as a record 1.02 billion shares changed hands there as well. The S&P 500 was up 44.62 to 921.61.
But the bond market, which had enjoyed several days of gains as investors fled stocks, gave up ground Tuesday. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond was down 2/32 to yield 6.28 percent.
The stock market had sold off earlier after a global meltdown that started with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index losing 13.7 percent to 9,059. Japanese and European stocks followed on the downside and Wall Street was not far behind.
But the bulls outweighed the bears in New York and after only an hour of trading, stocks bounced back as strong economic fundamentals appeared to bring back investor confidence in the market.
To some, Tuesday's gains were a sign that the worst may be over for the market -- for now.
"This is a selling climax. You can't tell a selling climax is over unless you get a short temporary rally," said Phil Roth, chief technical analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Others, like Smith Barney's veteran portfolio strategist Marshall Acuff, said this could be a perfect buying opportunity. Market sectors that had been hit in the sell-off bounced back, with technology, financial, drug and international companies all posting gains.
Among leaders, Intel (INTC) was up 9-5/8 to 84-3/8. The stock was the most actively traded on the Nasdaq, with over 36 million shares changing hands. Other technology stocks gained too, with Microsoft (MSFT) up 5-1/8 to 134, and Dell (DELL) up 8-1/4 to 90-1/4.
On the NYSE, Compaq (CPQ) was up 6-1/4 to 66-3/4, Texas Instruments (TXN) rose 8-7/8 to 111-5/8, and IBM (IBM) was 9-3/4 higher at 99-3/4. Big Blue announced Tuesday that it had put aside $3.5 billion to buy back its own shares.
Elsewhere, Fleet Financial Group (FLT) said it reached a deal with Advanta (ADVNA) to buy Advanta's credit-card business for $500 million. Fleet's shares were 1 lower at 63-3/8 while Advanta's stock was 1/4 higher at 33-3/4.
In earnings news Tuesday, UAL (UAL), the parent of United Airlines, announced third quarter profits of $499 million or $3.75 a share, up from $475 million or $3.58 a share a year ago. UAL shares traded 2-3/8 higher at 88-1/2.
Lifted by Wall Street's bold recovery, European stocks also climbed higher, finishing in negative territory, but well off their lows. London's FTSE 100 index closed off 85.3 points, or 1.76 percent, at 4,755.40. The index had been down as much as 9.5 percent. In Frankfurt the DAX index closed 311.90 points, or 8.04 percent, lower at 3,567.22. And in Paris the CAC-40 index closed down 118.31 points, or 4.27 percent, at 2,651.33. 
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