STOCKS REALIZE NEW HIGH

The stock market's late-summer rally came back to life Wednesday, pushing prices to record levels with encouragement from falling interest rates.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which had slipped 14.09 points over the week's first two sessions, climbed 29.07 to 3,055.23.

That topped the previous closing peak of 3,040.25 reached on Friday.

Marsha Limbaugh, with A.G. Edwards & Co. of Cape Girardeau, said a downward revision in the nation's gross national product for the second quarter prompted growth in the market.

"There's a growing perception that the Federal Reserve is going to cut the discount rate because of the GNP report, so that really got the market going today," Limbaugh said.

The government sprang a surprise on investors when it reported that the gross national product declined at an annual rate of 0.1 percent, after adjustment for inflation, in the second quarter of the year.

Earlier, the Commerce Department had estimated that GNP grew at a 0.4 percent annual rate in the April-June period.

The revision raised the prospect that the recession, which dates back to mid-1990, lasted longer than had earlier been believed. But it also touched off a drop in credit-market interest rates.

Donna Domian, of the Independence Street office of Edward D. Jones, said investors are confident because of recent world events, specifically in the Soviet Union.

"Things are decidedly different than they were two weeks ago," she said.

Domian said for the long-term, the trend of the market points upward.

And it's the consensus that interest rates will stay low.

"It's possible that interest rates may continue on a downward trend," said Bob Etherton, of Edward D. Jones & Co. of Cape Girardeau. "The market always goes up when the interest rates are down."

Etherton said another factor, though more slight, could have been the fact that Labor Day is just around the corner.

"Normally the week before a holiday the market is usually very strong. And of course, that's where we are now," he said.