By Stewart Lewis

(September 17 – 17:30 ET) – U.S.
stocks weathered yesterday’s storm.
They rallied today as the U.S.
dollar strengthened against the
yen. There was wide speculation
among traders that the U.S. might
intervene in foreign-exchange
markets to cut off the yen’s recent
advance.

The Dow Jones Industrial
Average, which fell throughout
most of this week, rose 107 points
to 10844 in late-afternoon trading.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock
index increased 17.50 to 1336.
The NYSE gained 6.40 to 613.70,
and the Nasdaq rose 50.80 to
2857.50.

A late-in-the-day decline in
IBM shares restrained the advance
of blue chip stocks. Bond prices
rose amid the dollar’s rebound
against the yen.

Canadian markets fared better
today too. The TSE 300 rose 44.83
to 7062.48. Advanced issues number
493. Declines hived off at 485.
Total volume of shares traded for
the day was more than 131 million.
The heaviest traded stock belonged
to Nortel. It was up $1.70.
Tech stock darling JDS Uniphase
recovered from yesterday’s
plummet. It rose $3.45 to finish
the day at $162.00 per share.

Trading on the Montreal
Exchange was very heavy. A total
of 13.5 million shares exchanged
hands. The ME was up 31.09 points
to 3756 at the market’s close.

The VSE experienced moderate
trading today, exchanging a
volume of 20.8 million. It closed
up 3.23 points to 411.94.

The Canadian dollar dropped
slightly today, finishing out the
week at 67.74 cents.