Stocks Rise for Fourth Week
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
U.S. stocks rose for a fourth week, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index above 1000 for the first time since November, as better-than-estimated employment, manufacturing and home-sales data boosted confidence that the worst slump since the Great Depression is ending.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo rallied more than 11 percent following an unexpected profit at HSBC Holdings, Europe's biggest bank, and a report from the National Association of Realtors showing that contracts to buy existing homes increased for a fifth month. American International Group, the insurer rescued by the U.S. government, more than doubled after reporting its first profit in seven quarters.
"If you step back and look at fundamentals, you have to say that things are lining up in quite a positive way for the next several months," said Linda Duessel, who helps oversee $402 billion as equity market strategist at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh.
The S&P 500 rose 2.3 percent to 1010.48, the highest level since Oct. 6. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 198.46 points, or 2.2 percent, to 9370.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1 percent to 2000.25.
The S&P 500 has jumped 49 percent since March 9, the steepest surge over the same number of days since the Great Depression, as three quarters of its companies posted second-quarter earnings that beat estimates and the economy showed signs of improvement.
Procter & Gamble fell 6.3 percent for the steepest loss in the Dow average.
Yields on 10-year Treasurys posted their biggest increase since March 2003, rising 0.4 percentage points to 3.85 percent. The government will auction $33 billion of three-month bills and $31 billion of six-month bills Monday. They yielded 0.17 percent and 0.28 percent, respectively, in when-issued trading. The Treasury will sell one-month bills Tuesday.
-- Bloomberg News
