Wall Street: Monday close

OFFICIAL confirmation that America is in recession barely caused a rippled on Wall Street as investors bet that a re-bound has already started.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average touched new post-attack highs before ending the day ahead 23.04 points or 0.23% to 9,982.75. The Nasdaq Index jumped 38.03 points or 2% to 1,941.23, a three-month high, partly on word that Internet retail sales appeared strong.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, the independent committee of economists which tracks economic cycles, said the US entered recession in March, ending a 10-year long expansion. The Committee, which looks at figures on a monthly basis, said the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington 'clearly deepened the contraction and may have been an important factor in turning the episode into a recession.'

Recognition of a recession, done in hindsight, is often a signal that the economy is about to recover, according to economists. The average US recession lasts less than a year. 'Investors are looking across the valley and taking the view that more of the recession is behind you and less ahead,' said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse First Boston.

But some market analysts are cautious given the rapid run-up in share prices since the lows hit on 21 September. 'The market may be ahead of itself right now,' said Grace Fey, portfolio manager at investment firm Frontier Capital Management. 'We're going to stay volatile for a while through the fourth quarter, but we're making a nice base to move higher in early 2002.'

Internet retailers were a source of strength. Amazon.com soared $3.13 or 34% to $12.21 on signs that online sales were running ahead of expectations. Yahoo! leapt $2.23 or 15% to $18.07 and eBay added $3.61 or 5.9% to $65.16. Bricks and mortar retailers were less well supported on reports they posted only small sales gains at the weekend despite deep discounting. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was flat at $55.75. Home Depot, America's biggest do-it-yourself chain, fell $1.06 or 2.3% to $45.52.

Techs posted gains across the board with Intel announcing it had made a breakthrough in transistor technology which could speed up semiconductor chips. Intel shares jumped 81 cents or 2.6% to $31.87. Network gear maker Cisco Systems, which has almost doubled from its September lows, rose another 34 cents or 1.7% to $19.93. Hewlett-Packard firmed 19 cents or 0.9% to $21.13. AOL Time Warner tacked on 61 cents or 1.7% to $37.37 after it announced it had signed up its 32 millionth user world-wide.

Boeing rose 26 cents or 0.7% to $35.89 after it said it would cut another 2,900 jobs bringing to 14,900 the number of redundancies announced this year. Telecom equipment maker Lucent shed 35 cents or 4.2% to $8.04 on broker downgrades.

Among Dow components, American Express led a strong financial services sector with an advance of 75 cents or 2.2% to $35.12, Walt Disney rose 39 cents or 1.9% to $21.39, General Electric was higher by 30 cents or 0.7% to $41.32 and General Motors recovered another 92 cents or 1.9% to $48.61. ExxonMobil slid 67 cents or 2.3% $39.57 as oil prices weakened again.