By John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

After the Bell - Monday , Oct. 22

September leading indicators was down an expected 0.5 percent. That was the biggest drop since January 1996.

STOCK MARKET COMMENTS:

The blue chips stocks overcame morning weakness and staged a sharp afternoon rally in moderate trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 172.92 points taking its strength from Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (NYSE: MMM), a DJIA component stock. MMM gained $5.82 closing at $107.99. The company reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.

The Nasdaq Composite Index added 36.78 points.

The DJIA closed at 9,377.03, up 1.88 percent from Friday's close of 9,204.11. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 1,708.09, up 2.2 percent from Friday's close of 1,671.31.

Trading volume on the NYSE totaled 1.22 billion shares down from Friday's volume of 1.46 billion shares. Advance-declines on the NYSE were in favor of winners on a ratio of 1.78 winners to 1.3 losers.

Trading volume on the Nasdaq totaled 1.49 billion shares down from Friday's volume of 1.59 billion shares.
Advance-declines on the Nasdaq were in favor of winners on a ratio of 2.1 winners to 1.5 losers.

More anthrax scares were in today's news, but it had no negative impact on the stock market. More than 200 companies reported quarterly earnings with Minnesota Mining leading the way. The company reported $1.10 a share, a drop of 21 percent in earnings, but a penny a share better than Thomson Financial/First Call consensus estimate of $1.09.

Strength in semiconductors, financials and biotechnology added to the day's market action.

UP AND DOWN WALL STREET:

Sector strength: Airline, biotech, chemical, drug, financial, health care, semiconductor and steel.

Sector weakness: Computer-hardware, gold, natural gas, networking, retail and telecommunications.