Wall Street: Thursday close

A BROAD rally spurred in part by strong economic data overshadowed the continuing implosion of energy trading house

Analysts said figures suggesting a snapback in the US economy boosted investor sentiment, but cautioned that the full effects of the Enron situation might not yet have been factored into share prices.

'The pervasiveness of Enron's troubles will come up in the next couple of weeks and I don't think that people recognise that this will spread through the banks, some of the energy trading companies, commodity trading companies, some of the brokers,' said Ned Riley, chief investment strategist with State Street Global Advisors.

'During every market low, there's some kind of major financial or bankruptcy news. This is the one we've had for this cycle.' Alan Ackerman, market strategist with broker Fahnestock & Co said the economic data, while promising, was only one thing investors were looking at.

'We saw an encouraging number in the durable goods, but it's too early to see this as a sustained trend up and layoffs continue to be a real concern,' he added.

Orders for durable goods provided fodder for supporters of the theory that the US ecoonomy is rebounding. Orders jumped an unexpected 12.8% in the latest month, its biggest increase since 1992, helped by orders for aircraft. Economists said the number was volatile and should be taken in context over a period of months. Orders fell 6.4% in September. Jobless claims painted a bleaker picture of the economy, leaping 54,000 to 488,000 in the latest week as company redundancies accelerated.

Enron shares, which peaked near $90 last year, traded down another 25 cents or 41% to 36 cents as analysts speculated that the company could file for bankruptcy protection at any time. Some of the company's European operations were placed in administration. Once the seventh biggest company in America, Enron has lost nearly $70bn in market value in the wake of trading losses and borrowings said to approach $15bn.

The group's lenders recovered some of the ground they lost on Wednesday. Citigroup regained 56 cents or 1.2% to $48.36. JP Morgan Chase retrieved 56 cents or 1.5% to $38.06.

Tech stocks rallied. Cisco Systems rose $1.01 or 5.4% to $19.89. Microsoft jumped $2.04 or 3.3% to $64.84. Hewlett-Packard gained $1.23 or 6.1% to$21.40. Sun Microsystems rose 65 cents or 4.9% to $13.81 and Intel erased an early loss to close up 56 cents or 1.8% to $32.32.

Among Dow components, Boeing recovered 98 cents or 2.9% to $35.15, General Motors strengthened 99 cents or 2% to $48.59, Philip Morris moved up $2.05 or 4.6% to $46.98 and Johnson & Johnson lost $1.51 or 2.5% to $58.48 on negative analyst comments. Bank of America tacked on $1.89 or 3% to $63.60 on positive broker comments.

Airlines were well supported on positive brokers' reports. AMR, parent of American, leapt 63 cents or 3% to $21.05. Delta surged $1.04 or 3.9% to $27.94.