Some took the news as a sign of a broad recovery, while others said it was mostly a mirage. But whatever the numbers signify in the long run, they were refreshing on Wednesday. What we need is a bunch more, and spread out evenly over time,'' said Marvin Kohn, who teaches classes in investing as a director of the Silicon Valley Regional Chapter of the National Association of Investment Clubs. The Dow's rise was its fifth-largest daily point gain ever. Twenty-nine of the Dow's 30 stocks rose Wednesday.
Technical analysts study changes in prices to predict future moves.
Gains in several indexes were important because they suggested a broad upturn is possible, and made up for several months of losses. The Dow has been flirting recently with 11,000, but hasn't surpassed it since last September. That is unlikely, said Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist for Deutsche Bank Securities, who said rising stock prices may not be such a healthy thing. Corporate earnings, he believes, are not nearly high enough to justify current stock prices. Among investors' concerns are second-quarter earnings, which are projected to be weak.