There May Be No Stopping the Market's Hopping
One hour of trading to go, and today's rally shows no sign of turning tail.
Two weeks ago portfolio managers would have greeted a move like this as a "Get out jail free" card. Anyone still buying on a day like this would have been seen as a rube. But today, with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
at a record high after seven months of famine, with the
S&P 500
beating its best levels for the sixth time in the last nine trading days, and with the
Nasdaq Composite
nearing its high-water mark, there aren't too many people out there pining for the exits. Cash may have been king in January, but now it's getting treated like a serf.
"I think all the guys that went into cash in the fourth quarter are getting flushed into the market," said Mike Molnar, head of OTC trading at
Salomon Smith Barney
.
Consumer cyclicals are the driving force behind the continuing rally, according to Peter Green, director of technical research at
Gruntal
.
"These are the laggards of the Dow, and they're finally breaking out," he said. "If you take
GE
(GE) - Get Report
as the proxy for the economy, this makes sense. The cyclicals are starting to get legs with the sense that the Asian crisis is behind us."
Tech stocks are again performing well.
"It's too strong out there," said one harried tech trader. "This stuff doesn't come down. There's no stopping this bull. Everything I offer, I get taken on."
Among techs, the box makers are the top performers.
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
,
Hewlett-Packard
(HWP)
,
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
and
Compaq
(CPQ)
putting in good days.
At 3 p.m. EST, the Dow is up 110 at 8291, beating its Aug. 6 high of 8259.31, while the S&P 500 is up 8 at 1019 and the Nasdaq is up 18 at 1708.