Dow again flirts with 11,000

Updated 6m ago
By Stephen Bernard And Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers

NEW YORK — The stock market traded modestly higher Tuesday following a gain in financial shares and a drop in technology companies.

Investors mostly ignored the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting Tuesday afternoon. The Fed kept its key rate at a historic low during the March meeting to help generate growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average came within 13 points of reaching the psychological milestone of 11,000 for the first time since September 2008, before the credit crisis peaked. It came within 12 on Monday.

With little news to go on, most stocks carved only modest moves. Shares of regional banks rose following upbeat comments from analysts. Tech stocks fell after business software company CA said earnings for the year will come in at the lower end of its forecast. CA also said it would cut 1,000 jobs, or about 8% of its workforce.

Shares of Massey Energy fell more than 10% after an underground explosion Monday afternoon blamed on methane gas killed 25 coal miners about 30 miles south of Charleston, W.Va. Four others were missing Tuesday following the explosion about 1.5 miles from the entrance to Massey's Upper Big Branch mine. It was the worst U.S. mining disaster since 1984.

Most trading was quiet. The stock market has been rising for 13 months but has made steadier advances since February following reports that signal the economy is slowly improving. There have been few pauses during the recent gains that have seen the Dow rise in each of the past five weeks, its longest winning streak since mid-April last year.

"You've got kind of firm legs under the economic rebound which makes firmer legs under the stock market's rebound," said Jason Pride, direct or investment strategy at Glenmede in Philadelphia.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.97% from 3.99% late Monday.

The 10-year yield climbed above 4% during trading Monday for the first time since June. It is approaching levels not seen since October 2008.

The Treasury Department auctioned $40 billion in three-year notes on Tuesday. Demand was down slightly from an auction last month.

The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold rose.

Crude oil fell 20 cents to $86.42 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier reaching an 18-month high of $87.09 a barrel.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6%, Germany's DAX index rose 0.3%, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.5%. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.5%.

Copyright 2010 The Associated

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2 ... sday_N.htm