Dow hits new record

Wall Street obviously isn't interested in any whining about subprime loans or high gas prices or the yucky state of the world in general. On a day when solid earnings news from Coca-Cola, J&J and JP Morgan outplayed yesterday's lukewarm results from Yahoo, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 12,803.84, up almost 31 points for the session and an all-time high (even though the Dow tumbled 16 points right at the end of trading). Actually, it was only a so-so day, with 11 or the 30 Dow components on the upside. But never mind - the market is still doing pretty well because the economy is doing pretty well, simple as that. Well, it's not quite that simple - there's the effect of all those mergers and acquisitons that, in some cases, have inflated stock prices to higher-than-justified levels. Naysayers keep arguing that judgment day awaits, but they said that a couple of months back when stocks took a big tumble and look what happened. Anyhow, local stocks were relatively tame on this record day, with the exception of a strong showing in the housing/mortgage sectors. Countrywide Financial was up 4.28 percent near the close, KB Home was up 2.49 percent, Indymac up 5.37 percent and Ryland up 2.07 percent. If there is indeed a "mortgage meltdown," as the LAT ominously suggested in yesterday's overwrought story on foreclosures, nobody is paying much attention.