US blue chips climbed yesterday taking the Dow Jones industrial average to a record closing high of 11,476.71 up 85.63 points on the day. Investors, confident that the US economy will remain strong continued to pour money into the market. Among the biggest gainers on the Dow were financial services group American Express which gained $3.50 to finish $161.75 and computer maker Hewlett Packard - adding $3.125 to finish at $111.31. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a slender margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,531 up, 1,597 down and 452 unchanged. Nasdaq decliners also led by a narrow margin. NYSE volume totalled 654.17 million shares at the close compared to 716.97 million on Monday.