Dow closes at 12,802 -New record high

by babblingdweeb | April 18, 2007 at 12:43 pm

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Early this morning WSJ [The Wall Street Journal] reported that J.P Morgan Chase posted a 55% surge in first-quarter net income -to $4.79 billion. The company is also increasing its quarterly dividend to 12% (first increase in six years: www.wsj.com).

Looking past the price of oil, this might be a nice sign of financial things to come for 2007; this being the second time the record was surpassed in 2007 (Feb. 20 the market closed at 12,786.64).

The Dow Jones industrials were flirting with records this afternoon, and the big question was whether weakness among some big technology stocks would keep the blue-chip index from closing at a new high.

Today's rally, however, has been lukewarm at best. In fact, only 10 stocks in the blue-chip index are higher today, led by JPMorgan Chase (JPM, news, msgs), up nearly 4% to $52.09 on the strength of a strong first-quarter earnings report. Boeing (BA, news, msgs) was also a big contributor to the gain with a 3.2% jump to $93.31.