Bulls Stampede On Wall Street

Investors continued to factor a better-than-expected earnings outlook into share prices Wednesday, sending U.S. stocks roaring higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average racked up a gain of 90.43 points, or 1.0 percent, to 9,175.47. It was the Dow's eighth win in the last 11 sessions.

Next week, leading U.S. corporations will unleash second-quarter earnings reports. The financial and retail sectors are expected to post some of the best results. Not surprisingly, these two market segments led Wednesday's charge higher.

Technology stocks were the day's other big leader. Internet-related issues highlighted the day's activity. Most of the shares gapped lower at the open of trading on big volume, only to gradually recover as the day wore on.

"While the Dow has failed to reach a new high, many sectors did improve last week," Ralph Acampora, chief technical analyst at Prudential Securities, said in a research note.

"This improvement is a good sign that the market may be broadening out under the surface."

In earnings news, Yahoo! blew away most analysts' forecasts with its second-quarter pro forma operating results of 15 cents a share, reporting after the close. The Street had expected 9 cents.

Yahoo! said the number of page views on its site jumped to 115 million in June from the 95 million in March. In addition, Yahoo! laid plans for a two-for-one stock split on Aug. 3 to shareholders of record on July 17.

Most other Internet-related issues retreated.

Amazon.com fell 15 to 107 1/8. NationsBanc Montgomery Securities analyst Steve Horen sliced his opinion of the stock to "hold" from "buy" based on valuation.

Lycos lost 7 1/2 to 77 1/2 and Excite gave back 4 7/8 to 91 3/8. SportsLine USA was down 1 1/8 to 34 7/8 and CNET depreciated 4 3/4 to 61 3/8. Internet service providers were mixed. MindSpring Enterprises moved ahead 2 to 95 1/4, while EarthLink Network depreciated 3 7/8 to 67 3/8.

Shares of companies specializing in Internet advertising services also sagged. DoubleClick declined 5 7/8 to 56 1/8 and NetGravity slipped 1 11/16 to 22.

But CMG Information Services sank just 3/8 to 68 1/4 after falling as much as 6 1/8 points. And America Online was unchanged at 108 7/8.

In other highlights Wednesday:

• The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.0 percent.
• New York Stock Exchange winners beat losers by 17 to 12.
• On the Big Board floor, turnover expanded 3 percent to 609 million shares.
• The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.4 percent. Advancing issues led decliners by 22 to 21 in the Nasdaq Stock Market. Volume totaled 840 million shares.
• In the bond market, the launch of several new Treasury and corporate issues kept prices at bay. Among the new issues, the Treasury sold $8 billion in 30-year TIPS, or inflation-protected bonds. The 30-year Treasury declined 7/32, to yield 5.623 percent.
• Motorola fell 2 3/4 to 52 1/4 after releasing second-quarte operating profits of a penny a share.
• Citicorp added 11 3/8 to 171 7/8 and Travelers Group tacked on 4 3/4 to 69 3/8. Merrill Lynch analyst Judah Kraushaar lifted his near-term rating on Citicorp to "buy" from "accumulate."
• Allergan improved 1 1/2 to 49. The manufacturer of eye-care products said it believes second-quarter sales topped expectations due mainly to revenue growth of its Alphagan and Botox drugs.
• Bellwether technology shares gained, with winners dominating losers by 5 to 1. Dell Computer rose 5 3/8 to 96 3/8, Intel 3 1/4 to 78 3/8, Gateway 3 1/4 to 59 3/4, Sun Microsystems 2 1/2 to 45 1/2, Ascend Communications 1 to 51 1/4, Microsoft 1 7/8 to 109 7/8, and International Business Machines 1 1/8 to 115.