Dow Average Crosses 11,000 Mark

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 11,000 Monday for the first time since before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, buoyed by a rally that has sent stock prices soaring through the first five sessions of 2006.

Wall Street's best known stock indicator reached 11,003.50 shortly after 1 p.m. EST, the first time since June 13, 2001 that the index of 30 blue chip stocks traded above that milestone. It last closed above 11,000 on June 7, 2001, when it stood at 11,090.74.

Monday's advance following a 241-point surge last week as investors grew increasingly optimistic that the Federal Reserve will soon end its string of interest rate hikes. The Dow came within 16 points of 11,000 last March 7, but fell back amid worries about inflation and higher oil prices, concerns that dogged the market for much of 2005.

The blue chips are still more than 6 percent below their all-time high of 11,722.98, reached Jan. 14, 2000, as the high-tech boom approached its peak, but they have recovered well from their low of 7,286.27, reached on Oct. 9, 2002, while the nation wrestled with an economic slowdown spurred by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon the year before.

The markets rebounded strongly in 2003, then posted modest gains in 2004. The Dow ended 2005 with a slight loss while the other major indexes edged higher; every time stocks made a significant advance last year, concerns about the impact of record high oil and gasoline prices on inflation, consumer spending and corporate profits sent the market retreating.

But investors' mood changed radically last week with the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's last policy-making meeting, during which the Fed's Open Market Committee signaled that its string of interest rate hikes dating back to the summer of 2004 would soon end.

Investment firms' upgrades of Dow components General Motors Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. gave the Dow the final push above 11,000 Monday.