US stocks powered ahead yesterday as Wall Street reckoned the US-British military strikes against Iraq and the upcoming vote to impeach President Bill Clinton have already been factored into the market.
The Dow Jones industrial
average ended up 85.22 points, or 0.97%, at 8875.82. The Nasdaq composite index jumped 34.53 points, or 1.72%, to 2043.89.
Analysts said the market was also buoyed in part by optimism over the US economy and an upbeat earnings outlook from Chase Manhattan.
''Right now the market doesn't need good news to go up. It just needs the absence of bad news,'' commented Barry Hyman, strategist for Ehrenkrantz, King Nusshaum.
Oil stocks eased, giving up some of the gains they posted ahead of Wednesday's launch of US attacks on Iraq.
Many analysts expected the conflict to be short and do little damage to world oil supplies.
''Any impact on the capital markets of the military attack will likely be limited and short-lived,'' Edward Kerschner, chief market strategist at PaineWebber, wrote in a report. ''Indeed, the global
markets seem almost accustomed to attacks on Iraq.''
Traders also said the market was eyeing the ''triple-witching'' expiration of futures and options contracts today.
Financial stocks were higher after Chase Manhattan, the nation's third-largest bank, said it may earn record profits in the fourth quarter, bucking a
downward trend in the financial
services sector.
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