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Dow sets eyes on 9,000
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November 6, 1998: 5:12 p.m. ET
Improved investor sentiment on the economy gives stocks solid gains
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Wall Street enjoyed another solid week, ending Friday with a small rally amid upbeat investor sentiment about the world economy and a renewed push toward 9,000 by the Dow industrials.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 59.99 points to close at 8,975.46, ending the week with a gain of 4.46 percent and increasing its gain for the year to 13.49 percent. On the New York Stock Exchange, advances led declines 1,710 to 1,342 as 686 million shares changed hands.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 19.46, or 1.06 percent, to 1,856.56 and the S&P 500 index advanced 7.32 to 1,141.00. The Nasdaq finished the week with a gain of 4.81 percent and is now up 18.23 percent for the year. The S&P 500 index rose 3.85 percent this week and now holds a gain of 17.58 percent for the year.
The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks advanced 3.53 to 400.32 Friday, climbing a whopping 5.86 percent on the week and cutting its loss for the year to 8.40 percent.
Much of the market action concentrated on building on Wall Street's gains from the previous day and trying to deduce which way interest rates will go from the enigmatic words of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
In a speech Thursday, Greenspan suggested the panic created by the world financial crisis might be easing, something that would give the Fed less reason to ease rates two weeks from now. But a weaker-than-expected U.S. October jobs report, inadvertently released a day in advance Thursday, could weigh in the opposite direction.
The bond market tumbled, hurt by the increased possibility that there might not be a rate cut Nov. 17, as well as by investors shifting funds from the safer debt securities into the higher-rewarding stock market. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond slumped 1-2/32 points for a yield of 5.38 percent.
The dollar advanced against the Japanese yen and the German mark, drawing strength from the fading prospects for a U.S. interest rate cut.
The elixir of youth?
Investors seeking eternal youth found an answer in the shares of Geron (GERN), the biotechnology firm that financed university research to develop human embryonic stem cells from which all human cells evolve. The news that such cells have been successfully cultivated in a laboratory sent Geron's stock soaring 7-5/16, or more than 74 percent, to 17-3/16.
The day's other newsmakers were more mundane and less lucky. Shares of sewing machine maker Singer (SEW) tumbled 7/8, or nearly 15 percent, to 5-1/16 after the company reported a third-quarter loss.
But shares of Wild Oats (OATS) rose 3/8 to 26-3/4 following a Business Week article suggesting the natural food retailer could be a takeover target for rival Whole Foods Market (WFMI), whose stock inched up 5/16 to 40-1/8.
Finally, shares of Safeway (SFY) gained 2-13/16 to 50 on news the supermarket chain will take Chrysler's (C) place among the S&P 500 stocks.
(Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers) 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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