MARKET REPORT - NEW YORK

Wall Street stocks rallied yesterday as investors grew confident that Federal Reserve policy has swung away from boosting interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 87.78 points and closed at 7,345.91, beating last Thursday's record close of 7,333.55.

Analysts said investors were encouraged by newly published minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting on March 25th.

At that meeting, Fed officials raised short-term lending.

But in so doing, they acknowledged that inflation "remained remarkably subdued" and suggested that the factors keeping wages from accelerating "could well begin to wane soon, if they had not already begun to do so.