Stocks were mostly higher on reports showing moderate inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor's 500 hit new records. But weakness in some technology shares pulled the Nasdaq stock market lower. At the close on Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 106.82 at 11,107.19, breezing past its previous closing record of 11,031.59 posted last Friday. The Dow is up more than 21 per cent so far this year.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a three-to-two margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,836 up, 1,199 down and 542 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 785.34 million shares at the close.

IBM led the Dow higher after Merrill Lynch raised its prediction for how much the stock would rise over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, the market got a boost from a government report that wholesale inflation was in line with expectations.