Greenspan's Hints of a Cut Boost Stocks
Oh, Alan, you're too much.
Stocks popped when headlines culled from the
of
Federal Reserve
Chairman
Alan Greenspan's
comments before the
Senate Budget Committee
hit the wires this afternoon. The chairman hinted, in theway only he can, that an interest-rate cut may be in the offing.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was up 116 to 8013. The
S&P 500
wasup 19 to 1048, while the
Nasdaq Composite Index
was up 38 to 1735 and the
Russell2000
was up 6 to 374.
Treasuries continued lower, with the 30-year Treasury bond recentlydown 7/32 to 105 2/32, yielding 5.17%.
Greenspan said: "By mid-August the committee believed that disruptionsabroad and more cautious behavior by investors at home meant that the risksto the expansion had become evenly balanced. Since then, deterioratingforeign economies and their spillover to domestic markets have increasedthe possibility that the slowdown in the growth of the American economywill be more than sufficient to hold inflation in check."
The market has been higher today in the hope the Fed chairman would hint the Fed was leaning toward slicing rates. As headlines from Greenspan's prepared comments reached the wires, the Dow leapt as much as 142.89 to 8040.09.
On the
New York Stock Exchange
, 2,177 advancers were leading 856decliners on 664 million shares.
Nasdaq Stock Market
winners werebeating losers 2,453 to 1,471 on 698 million shares.
On the NYSE, 96 issues were at new 52-week lows while 53 were at newhighs. On the Nasdaq, 116 issues were at new lows while new highs totaled 38.
