STOCK MARKET: A Very Bullish Beginning for 1976

Wall Streeters are accustomed to it.

As each new year begins, stock prices generally rally at least slightly, rebounding from the December sell-offs when investors dumped lackluster shares to establish losses for tax purposes. What happened last week, however, far surpassed the usual January flurry: with a powerful surge, the stock market leaped into the new year. On each day last week, prices successively chalked up solid to spectacular gains, adding a total of 52.42 points to the Dow Jones industrial average. That barometer broke through the psychologically important 900 mark to close...