Session Starts on the Upside

Author:: Brian Louis
Publish date:: Sep 22, 1998 9:58 AM EDT

Stocks across the board opened modestly higher, continuing gains enjoyed yesterday.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 47 to 7980. The

S&P 500

was up 10 to 1034, while the

Nasdaq Composite Index

was up 19 to 1699 and the

Russell 2000

was up 3 to 366.

Strength in equities today has been the Treasury market's loss. The 30-year Treasury bond was recently down 26/32 to 105, yielding 5.17%.

Analysts and traders said yesterday's market reversal in fortune was a relief rally because the broadcast of

President Clinton's

grand jury testimony regarding his affair with the world's most famous intern,

Monica Lewinsky

, didn't contain any surprises.

The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite sported slight gains yesterday, while the small-cap Russell 2000 ended a bit lower.

After falling into the background for a while, Japan is again at the global financial crisis forefront. Japanese politicians are still haggling over legislation to repair that nation's troubled bank system as its economy continues mired in a recession.

Meanwhile, today Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister

Keizo Obuchi

today are slated to meet in Tarrytown, N.Y.

In other news,

USA Today

reported that senior executives at

Goldman Sachs

say the firm's IPO may be pushed into the new year because of the current volatile global market conditions. Goldman declined to comment.