US stocks rallied into the close last night, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to its first finish above 9,000 in three weeks. The Standard-and-Poor's 500 rose 14.72 to 1,148.56, topping Monday's high of 1,138.49.
The Nasdaq composite rose 19.72 to 1,914.46, just shy of its all-time best finish of 1,917.61 set on April 22nd and the first close above 1,900 since that record was set. The Nasdaq has surged nearly 12 per cent over the past two weeks.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than a two to one margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,105 up, 960 down and 469 unchanged.
NYSE volume totalled 682.79 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 754.85 million on Tuesday.
The NYSE composite index was up 6.87 to 585.60, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.03 to 723.31.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.46 to 459.85.
