Stocks pushed higher yesterday after some mild profit-taking on yesterday's rally, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising to its highest level since before the market's tumble in late October.

On Wall Street, the Dow wiped out an early 50-point slide and rose 52.57 points - or 0.65% - to 8,160.35, less than 100 points shy of its first foray into record terrain in half a year.

Broad-market indexes also shrugged off some early losses, with the Standard and Poor's 500 and the New York Stock Exchange composite padding yesterday's closing records.

The Dow, which peaked last August 6th at 8,259.31, hasn't finished a session this high since October 7th. That was about three weeks before a financial panic in Asia triggered a rout. The Dow's strongest components were JP Morgan, Union Carbide and Procter and Gamble.

Investors continued to pay limited attention to domestic economic considerations that normally would have ruled the day.