Wall Street's blue-chip sector came back to life after a week of sluggishness as technology and bank shares led the stock market to more record highs. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.77 points to close at 8,259.31, just beating last Wednesday's record of 8,254.89.

The Nasdaq market cruised to its sixth straight closing high as big-name technology shares continued to rally.

There was little market reaction to the release of a Federal Reserve report which reinforced the widespread belief that the economy is expanding moderately with prices remaining stable despite tighter labour markets.

The report will be used by Fed policy makers when they meet on August 19th to determine whether the central bank needs to raise interest rates to keep inflation in check. In an encouraging footnote, many participants in the Fed's periodic survey of business conditions said competition made a rise impossible.

The Standard and Poor's 500-stock list rose 7.95 to 960.32