Wall Street surges higher, led by tech stocks
NEW YORK — IBM gave Wall Street a reprieve from bad news today and investors responded by giving stocks a big rebound from their Inauguration Day plunge.
With a half-hour of trading to go, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 193.55, or 2.4 percent, at 8,142.64. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 24.56, or 3.1 percent, at 829.78, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 44.87, or 3.1 percent, at 1,485.73.
Gains by technology stocks and a partial rebound in financial shares pulled the market higher after fears about the banking system pummeled Wall Street without interruption Tuesday. Quarterly results and forecasts from PNC Financial Services Group and Bank of New York Mellon eased concerns that the troubles at financial giants like Citigroup were hitting every one of banks.
Some bounce would have been expected following Tuesday’sitting sell-off that took the Dow down 332 points. But a better-than-expected 2009 forecast from IBM left technology shares looking not just oversold but as relatively safe bargains for some investors. Energy stocks also advanced as oil gained.
IBM related late Tuesday it expects its earnings for the new year to come in well above what analysts had been expecting and that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 12 percent, easily topping analysts’ estimates. Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson also reported earnings that beat forecasts.
Not all industries shared in the day’s advance. Airlines were weak after American Airlines and United Airlines posted lackluster results. Typical safe-havens for thin economies, probable utilities and makers of consumer staples, fell in the manner that investors shifted money into harder-hit areas to look for deals.
Earnings reports commanded the place of traffic’s focus today and will do so beneficial to the nearest few weeks. Apple is attitude to report its fiscal first-quarter results after the place of traffic closes.
Kim Caughey, equity research algebraist at Fort Pitt Capital Group, said the results from IBM and more of the banks were a reminder that as long as it’s a difficult interval for businesses, not all are struggling as much as some financial names.
“It was a great reminder that businesses still have their lights in succession, their doors open and that they’re structure money,” she uttered.
Beyond earnings, investors are looking instead of insights into what steps the new administration will take to strand up the economy. President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee, Timothy Geithner, was attached Capitol Hill for his Senate confirmation judicial examination. He asked Congress to act quickly and forcefully to deal with the pecuniary crisis and said Obama is in operation to foster economic recovery and “get credit flowing again.”
Bond prices slumped as stocks rebounded. The render in succession the benchmark 10-year Treasury bill, which moves antagonistic its price, rose to 2.52 percent from 2.37 percent late Tuesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, in demand because it is considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.12 percent from 0.10 percent late Tuesday.
The dollar was mixed opposite to other greater currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude rose $2.71 to settle at $43.55 a barrel adhering the New York Mercantile Exchange
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei store medial sum fell 2.04 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.10 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.50 percent, and France’session CAC-40 vandalic 0.67 percent.
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