Record highs for the Dow Jones industrial average, the first in a half-dozen years, created an updraft that carried numerous stocks higher.
Among the week’s winners, Boeing Co.’s stock reached an all-time high after it named Larry Dickenson to lead commercial airplane sales.
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Dickenson, 63, replaces Scott Carson, who was elevated to run Boeing’s commercial aircraft unit after Alan Mulally left to become chief executive of Ford Motor Co.
The appointment of Dickenson comes as rival planemaker Airbus SAS is mired in problems. It is delaying deliveries of its superjumbo A380 jet for the third time in 16 months, amid vexing difficulties with wiring. The woes at its European rival are cementing Boeing’s position as the No. 1 provider of jets worldwide.
Shares of Chicago-based Boeing ended at $83.68, up 31 percent from a 52-week low of $63.70.
Speculation that UAL Corp. might merge with another carrier, with sources naming Continental Airlines Inc., gave a lift to the Chicago-based parent of United Airlines.
However, Larry Kellner, chief executive of Continental, said his company has no merger plans.
“We’re in a position that is very good competitively. … I’d prefer to remain independent,” Kellner said in Houston, where the carrier is based.
Published reports said that United had hired an investment banker to study the possibility of a merger.
Shares of UAL finished at $30.04, a gain of 37 percent from a recent low of $21.90.
And the stock of Sara Lee Corp. got a boost from speculation it might go private. Downers Grove-based Sara Lee, whose brands include its namesake baked goods as well as Jimmy Dean meats and Hanes underwear, has been overhauling operations and shedding businesses following years of sluggish results.
A Sara Lee spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.
Its stock ended at $16.49, up 17 percent from a 52-week low of $14.08.
On the downside, the stock of Abbott Laboratories slipped after it dropped plans to sell the drug-coated heart stent it developed. North Chicago-based Abbott said it found the device doesn’t work as well as the version from Guidant Corp., which was acquired in April.
Stents are mesh tubes that hold open blood-vessel walls after they’ve been cleared.
Shares of Abbott closed at $46.19, off 7 percent from a recent high of $49.87.
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