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A feast for the bulls
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February 11, 1999: 5:16 p.m. ET
Nasdaq has its best point rally in history, broader markets surge too
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Nasdaq Composite had its best point gain in history and the broader stock market enjoyed a powerful rally Thursday as investors devoured technology and financial shares and found good news in Alan Greenspan's decision not to mention interest rates in congressional testimony.
Wall Street shook off days of weakness and concerns, caused by speculation about rising interest rates and excessive stock valuations, and let the bulls roam free, driving up the same stocks they had trampled earlier in the week.
The Nasdaq Composite, hit hardest in the sell-off late last week and early this week, led the rally, climbing 96.05 points, or 4.16 percent, to 2,405.55 -- its largest one-day point gain.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day up 186.15 points, or 2.03 percent, at 9,363.46. Advances outnumbered declines 1,771 to 1,194 as trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached 798 million shares.
The S&P 500 index rallied 30.49, or 2.49 percent, to 1,254.04.
The market received help from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who delivered testimony on the banking system before the House Banking Committee.
Greenspan avoided mention of the economy or interest rates in his prepared remarks, but gave his full support to banking reforms.
Liz Ann Sonders, money manager at Avatar Associates, said Greenspan's discreteness about monetary policy helped the rally by soothing investors, who had feared that the Fed chief could use the opportunity to hint at higher interest rates. (220K WAV) or (220K AIFF)
The bond market finished mixed after absorbing $10 billion in 30-year bonds auctioned by the Treasury Department. Bonds had a choppy day in which investors digested stronger-than-expected January retail sales data and fewer-than-expected weekly jobless claims. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond ended 2/32 of a point higher in price for a yield of 5.36 percent.
The dollar rose against both the yen and the euro.
Deals, earnings and Greenspan
In the stock market, a revival among technology stocks entered its second day and attracted much of investors' interest as blue-chip high-techs bounced back from days of weakness and headed up with gusto.
Among the leaders of the pack were shares of MCI WorldCom (WCOM), which gained 4-3/16 to 80-7/16 after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat estimates by a penny. Investors saw encouraging signs in what was the company's first full quarter of operation as a combined entity of MCI and WorldCom.
Separately, the telecommunications giant entered a multibillion dollar deal with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) that would allow the two companies to outsource large portions of their businesses to each other and share and develop joint technologies. Shares of EDS gained 2-7/16 to 48-5/16.
Elsewhere among the high-techs, big-names headed higher, extending a recovery that started Wednesday. Shares of Dow member IBM (IBM) rallied 9-3/4 to 178-5/8, Microsoft (MSFT) rose 2-1/8 to 162-3/4, Cisco Systems (CSCO) advanced 6-5/16 to 104-7/8, Dell Computer (DELL) climbed 4-7/8 to 101-7/8, and Intel (INTC) gained 4-7/16 to 133-1/4.
Internet shares also regained their footing, as even Lycos (LCOS), the search engine whose acquisition by USA Networks (USAI) resulted in the stock losing more than a quarter of its value, jumped 16, or more than 18 percent, to 103-1/4. Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) closed up 16-1/8 to 158-1/2, Infoseek (SEEK) gained 11-9/16 to 65-9/16, and Excite (XCIT) was up 15-3/8 to 105-1/4. Amazom.com (AMZN) rose 12-7/16 to 109-7/8. Several Web-related IPOs also rose sharply on their first day of trading.
Alan Greenspan's voiced support for banking reform helped financial stocks embark on a rally of their own. Among the Dow components, American Express (AXP) rose 4-1/4 to 101, Citigroup (CCI) gained 1-1/4 to 53-5/8, and J.P. Morgan (JPM) finished up 2-3/8 to 106-3/16.
Among the day's other deals of prominence, shares of Fingerhut (FHT), the catalog and Web retailer, rallied 5-9/16 to 24-3/8 on news that department store giant Federated Department Stores (FD) is buying the company in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion cash. Federated's stock fell 2-13/16 to 39-11/16.
Finally, shares of tobacco powerhouse Philip Morris (MO) shed 5/8 to 40-13/16 after a jury in California awarded a smoker with cancer a total of $51.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
(Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers)
(Click here for a look at today's CNNfn technology stocks report) 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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