Dow closes at record high, again
Stocks were mostly higher Friday morning but lost steam in the final hour of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average managed to close at a record high again as investors celebrated a surge in Alibaba shares on their first day of trading.
The Dow closed up 13.75 points, 0.1%, to 17,279.74 and hit an intraday record of 17,350.64 in morning trading. The S&P 500 index turned negative in the final minutes of trading and ended down 1 point, 0.1%, to finish at 2010.40 after earlier setting an all-time high of 2019.26.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index ended down 13.64 points, 0.3%, to close at 4579.79.
The highly anticipated stock market debut of the Chinese e-commerce company began trading under the ticker symbol BABA after a two-and-a-quarter-hour delay this morning. Shares finished up about 38% to $93.89 after the company set its initial public offering price of $68 a share late Thursday.
Yahoo (YHOO), which owns a 24% stake in Alibaba, did not share in the enthusiasm as shares dropped 2.7% to close at $40.93.
Investors were also buoyed by Scottish voters' rejection of an independence referendum, adding to the upward momentum created by the Federal Reserve's announcement early this week that interest rates will not rise for a considerable time.
In other corporate news:
• Apple (AAPL) kicked off sales of its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones as thousands for fans lined up at Apple stores worldwide to get the new devices. Shares ended down about 0.8% to $100.96.
Overseas, Britain's FTSE rose 0.3% to 6837.92 on the news that Scotland will remain part of the United Kingdom and the pound rose against the euro to the strongest level in more than two years.
Elsewhere in Europe, Germany's DAX was pretty much flat at 9799.26 and France's CAC-40 dipped 0.1% to 4461.22.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 253.6 points, or 1.6%, to 16,321.17, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 137.44 points, or 0.6%, to 24,306.16, and the Shanghai Composite added 13.52 points, or 0.6%, to 2329.45.
Thursday, stocks rose as Dow closed up 109.14 points, or 0.6%, and ended at a new all-time high of 17,265.99. The S&P 500 added 9.79 points, 0.5%, and closed at a record-high 2011.36. The Nasdaq finished up 31.24 points, 0.7%, to end at 4593.43.