WALL Street stocks surged to record levels today, following through on Friday's rally as interest rates edged lower again in the bond market.

The Dow Jones, the barometer of 30 big US companies, has now rebounded by over 240 points since sliding below 5,400 last Wednesday amid worries about inflation and rising bond yields.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than two to one on the New York Stock Exchange, where the composite index set its first new record since early April.

Investors have been favouring technology and speculative issues as having the most to gain from an improving economy and they continued to rebound from a week long slump in their rally.

The NYSE's composite index rose 4.31 to 354.33. The Nasdaq composite rose 18.50 to 1,221.26 and the Russell 2000 gained 3.35 to 354.50.