Stocks (thoroughly) mixed as Dow hits new high

NEW YORK — More big gains for Goldman Sachs and Chevron helped pull the Dow Jones industrial average to another record high Thursday even as other indexes fell.

Ford and General Motors climbed after they announced strong sales in November.

At the 4 p.m. ET close, the Dow stood at 19,191.93 a gain of 0.4% or 68 points — and about 40 points above the record closing high it set Friday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.4%. Taking a pounding was the Nasdaq composite, which lost 1.4% as technology companies like Facebook and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, sank. Health care companies slipped.

Oil prices continued to rise and reached their highest since mid-October. Benchmark U.S. crude picked up 3.3%, to $50.85 a barrel in New York after it jumped 9.3% Wednesday.

The price of oil had soared Wednesday after the members of OPEC, which collectively produce more than one-third of the world’s oil, agreed to a small cut in production starting in January. The price of oil has mostly traded between $40 and $50 a barrel since early April. It dipped as low as $26 a barrel in February.

Bond prices continued to fall. That yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.44% from 2.38%, its highest since July 2015.

Stocks are following the pattern that has held since the presidential election. Banks are rising as investors expect interest rates to increase, which will help banks make more money from lending. Industrial and materials companies are moving higher on the prospect of increased spending on infrastructure. Technology stocks are falling. A strengthening dollar could hurt their sales outside the U.S. Stocks that pay large dividends, like utilities and real estate companies, are also down. Those stocks become less appealing to investors seeking income when bond yields climb.

European stock indexes struggled. In Britain, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5% and Germany’s DAX fell 1%. The CAC 40 in France shed 0.4%.

Japan's Nikkei gained 1.1% on the yen's weakness.